Star Bulk Carriers Corp.

Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Starbuck Carriers Conference Call on the First Quarter 2024 Financial Results. We have with us Mr. Petros Papas, Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Hamish Norton, President, Mr. Simo Spiro, and Mr. Christos Bugleris, Co-Chief Financial Officers, Mr. Nikos Reskos, Chief Operating Officer, and Mrs. Haris Plankantanaki, Chief Strategy Officer of the company. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question-and-answer session, at which time, if you wish to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. I must advise you that this conference is being recorded today. We now pass the floor to one of your speakers today, Mr. Christos Begleris. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, operator. I am Christos Begleris, co-CFO of Starbuck Carriers, and I would like to welcome you to our conference call regarding our financial results for the first quarter of 2024. Before we begin, I kindly ask you to take a moment to read the safe harbor statement on slide number two of our presentation. In today's presentation, we'll go through our Q1 results, cash evolution during the quarter, actions taken to create value for our shareholders, an update on the Eagle Belt integration, vessel operations, fleet update, the latest on the ESG front, and our views on industry fundamentals before opening up for questions. Let us now turn to slide number three of the presentation for a summary of our first quarter 2024 highlights. For the first quarter, the company reported the following. Net income amounting to 75 million with adjusted net income of 73 million or 87 cents adjusted earnings per share. Adjusted EBITDA was 123 million for the quarter. For the first quarter, as per our existing dividend policy, we declared a dividend per share of 75 cents payable on or about June 6th, 2023. Since 2021, dividend distributions and share buybacks are over 1.2 billion and 0.4 billion respectively. Our total liquidity today stands strong at 472 million. Meanwhile, our total debt stands at 1.45 billion. On the top right of the page, you will see our daily figures per vessel for the quarter. our TCE rate was 19,627 per vessel per day. Our combined daily OPEX and net cast GNA expenses per vessel per day amounted to 6,185. Therefore, our TCE less OPEX and cast GNA is around $13,442 per vessel per day. Following Eagle shareholders' approval, on April 9th, the EagleBulk transaction was completed and each EagleBulk shareholder received 2.6211 Starbucks shares per share of Eagle. EagleBulk's convertible notes will be exchangeable at the conversion rate equal to 83.67 shares of Starbucks common stock when it matures on August 1st, 2024. Cash received following the Eagle merger amounted to $104.3 million. Currently, we have 161 vessels on a fully delivered basis, including the five new building CAMSROMAX vessels we have announced. During 2024, we have sold eight vessels for total gross proceeds of $150 million. Four of these vessels, namely Star Audrey, Star Pixis, Stellar Eagle and Crowned Eagle are expected to be delivered during Q2 to their new owners. Slide 4 graphically illustrates the change in the company's cash balance during the first quarter. We started the quarter with $262 million in cash and generated positive cash flow from operating activities of $114 million, including debt proceeds and repayments. CAPEX payments for energy-saving devices and ballast water treatment system installments, and the Q4 dividend payment, we arrived at a cash balance of $269 million at the end of the quarter. Slide 5 provides an overview of the company's capital allocation policy over the last three years and the various levers we have used to create shareholder value. On the top left, we show our net debt evolution. Since 2021, we have reduced leverage in the company by 43%. Over the same period, we have declared consecutive quarterly dividends totaling 1.2 billion. We have taken advantage of historically elevated S&P values to sell some of our older and less efficient vessels using the equity proceeds to buy back our shares at attractive values. Since 2022, we have bought back $423 million worth of Starbucks stock. 20 million shares, valued at $380 million, were bought in the fourth quarter of 2023 from Oak Tree. Given that our shares at the time were trading at a significant discount to net asset value, and we used process from vessel sales at net asset value, we have taken advantage of the arbitrage to create shareholder value. Combining all of the above, we see that we have focused on returning capital to shareholders, while at the same time deleveraging the balance sheet and buying back shares when there are opportunities to do so accretively. In total, since 2021, we have taken actions of $2.1 billion to create value for our shareholders. I will now pass the floor to our COO, Nikos Reskos, for an update on the EagleBalk transaction integration and our operational performance. Thank you, Christos.

Slide 6 illustrates a summary of the EagleBalk transaction integration. The merger with EagleBalk will allow us to leverage our strong global presence of the combined entity with offices in Singapore, the U.S., Greece, Denmark, and Cyprus. The respective Singapore offices are to merge into one and continue as a commercial and technical management hub covering the Asia-Pacific. The Stanford office is to continue both on commercial and technical management, covering the Atlantic and the US markets. Together with the Athens headquarters in Europe, we will maintain presence in Copenhagen for chartering operations covering the Atlantic, continent, and the Med area. We are creating a new integrated commercial team managing the second largest Ultramax-Supramax fleet globally to combine capabilities and aim for improved time chart performance. We also aim to rebalance employment strategy and include voyage business. We have already refinanced the ex-Eagle debt facility, resulting in interest cost savings of $3.2 million per year. We have executed new insurance agreements for the ex-Eagle vessels, saving $1.9 million per annum in insurance premium costs. Crewing will be gradually taken in-house, with an expected cost reduction of about $600 per vessel per day during the next 18 months. Significant synergies are expected from the centralization of procurement of all stores, spare parts, and lubricants. Dry docks of ex-EGLE bulk vessels will benefit from stable, competitive pricing agreements with service providers and shipyards globally. Marine safety quality and technical maintenance standards, processes, policies, and systems are to be applied across the combined fleet, aiming to align with the Starbuck Rideship Safety Score and Port State Control performance. Lastly, systems integrations are underway to enable efficiencies amongst offices and departments and create further synergies. Turning to slide seven, we provide an operational update. Operate expenses was at $4,962 for Q1, 2024. Net cast GNA expenses were at $1,223 per vessel per day for the same period. In addition, we continue to rate at the top amongst our listed peers in terms of ride ship safety score. Flight date provides a fleet update and some guidance around our future dry dock and the relevant total off-hide days. On the top right of the page, we provide a CAPEX schedule illustrating our new building CAPEX and vessel energy efficiency upgrades, with 100% of our fleet by now being ballast water system fitted. Our expected dry dock expense for the remainder of 2024 is estimated at $42.4 million for the dry docking of 51 vessels, including 12 ex-Eagle Belt vessels. we expect to have approximately 1,250 off-yard days for the same period. Based on our latest construction schedule, our new building vessels are expected to be delivered during Q4 of 2025, Q2, and Q3 of 2026. In line with the EXI and CII regulations, we'll continue investing in upgrading our fleet with the latest operational technologies available aimed in improving our fuel consumption and reducing emissions. our environmental footprint, and further enhancing commercial attractiveness of the Starbuck fleet. Regarding our energy-saving devices, programmed during the quarter, we have completed and tested retrofits on four vessels, with 19 more vessels planned for retrofit by the end of 2024. The above numbers are based on current estimates around dry dock, retrofit planning, vessel employment, and yard capacity. Turning to slide nine, for an update on our fleet sales. On the vessel sales front, we continue disposing of vessels opportunistically at historically attractive levels, having agreed during Q1 to sell seven vessels for a total gross proceeds of $134 million, reducing our average fleet age and improving overall fleet efficiency. During the second quarter, we have further agreed to sell one more vessel, the Crown Deagle. We took delivery of three out of the six long-term chartering echo vessels that will be delivered to us throughout 2024, and specifically two Chunaishi Zusan Camstramaxes and a Chunaishi Cebu Ultramax. The Eagle Bulk existing chartering contracts have been rolled over to Starbuck following the merger. We have five firm shipbuilding contracts with Quindao Shipyard for the construction of 82,000 deadweight Camstramax new building vessels. Considering the formation changes in our fleet mix, we operate one of the largest dry boat fleet amongst US and European listed peers, with 161 vessels on a fully delivered basis, and an average age of 11.3 years. I will now pass the floor to our Chief Strategy Officer, Haris Plakatonaki, for an ESG update.