Star Bulk Carriers Corp.

Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Star Bowl Carriers conference call on the second quarter 2024 financial results. We have with us Mr. Petros Papas, Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Hamish Norton, President, Mr. Seymour Spiro, and Mr. Christos Belgeris, Co-Chief Financial Officers, Mr. Nikos Reskos, Chief Operating Officer, and Mrs. Sharice Plakantonaki, Chief Strategy Officer of the company. At this time, our participants are in 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 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. Spiro, please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, operator. I'm Simo Spirou, Co-Chief Financial Officer of Starball Carriers, and I would like to welcome you to our conference call regarding our financial results for the second 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 will go through our second quarter results, cash evolution during the quarter, actions taken to create value for our shareholders, an update on our EagleBulk integration, vessel operations, fleet update, the latest on the ESG front, and our views on industry fundamentals before we open up for questions. Let us now turn to slide number three of the presentation for a summary of our second quarter 2024 highlights. For the second quarter 2024, the company reported the following. Net income amounted to $106 million with adjusted net income of $89 million or $0.81 per share adjusted earnings. Adjusted EBITDA was at 153 million for the quarter. For the second quarter, as per our existing dividend policy, we declare the dividend per share of 70 cents payable on September 6, 2024. Since 2021, dividend distributions are over 1.25 billion, or $12.20 per share, and share buybacks of over 420 million. Our total liquidity today stands strong at 516 million. Meanwhile, our total debt stands at 1.38 billion. On the top right of the page, you will see our daily figures per vessel for the quarter. Our time charter equivalent rate was $19,268 per vessel per day. Our combined daily OPEX and net cash GNA expenses per vessel per day amounted to $6,690. Therefore, our TC, less OPEX and less cash GNA is around $12,578 per day per vessel. The Eagle Bulk transaction was completed on April 9th and the Eagle Bulk vessels contributed 83 days each during the second quarter. Cash received from the Eagle Bulk merger amounted to 104.3 million. EagleBulk's convertible notes, which matured on August 1, 2024, converted to 5,971,290 shares of Starbuck common stock. 1,341,584 shares of Starbuck have been loaned out as part of a share lending agreement with Jeffries Capital Services, in connection with the EagleBulk convertible nodes, and have been returned to StarBulk and cancelled. The fully diluted share count as of today stands at 118,825,307 shares. Currently, we have 159 vessels on a fully delivered basis, including the five new building Camp Surmax vessels we have announced. During 2024, we have sold 10 vessels for a total gross proceeds of 180 million. Two of these vessels, namely Star Iris and Star Hydrus, are expected to be delivered during the third quarter to their new owners. As of June 30, 2024, the equity left aside from vessel sales and the ATM after the share buybacks and 18 million of new building installments stands at 74 million. During the third quarter, the above equity will increase by 24 million from the sale of the two sold vessels and will be reduced by 8 million of new building installments. down payments. Slide number four graphically illustrates the changes in the company's cash balance during the second quarter. We started the quarter with $373 million in cash, out of which $104 million were received from the EagleBulk transaction. We generated positive cash flow from operating activities of $143 million. After including debt proceeds and repayments, capex payments for ESD and ballast water treatment installations, and the first quarter dividend payment, we arrived at a cash balance of $486 million at the end of the second quarter. Slide number five provides an overview of the company's capital allocation policy over the last three years and the various levels 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 approximately 34 percent. Our average net debt per vessel has decreased from 11 million to 6 million per vessel. Starbuck has been creating value for its shareholders through consecutive fleet buyouts by issuing shares at or above NAV. Over the same period, we have declared consecutive quarterly dividends of over $1.25 billion. We have taken advantage of historically elevated S&P values to sell some of our older and less efficient vessels, using equity proceeds to buy back our shares at attractive valuations. Since 2022, we have bought back $423 million worth of Starbuck stock. Combining all of the above, we see that we have focused on returning capital to our 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 2.3 billion to create value for our shareholders. I will now pass the floor to our COO, Nikos Reskos, for an update on EagleBalk transaction integration and our operational performance. Thank you, Simo.

Slide 6 illustrates a summary of the EagleBalk transaction integration. The integration with EagleBalk is underway, and upon completion, it 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 operations have merged into one entity and continue as a commercial and technical management hub, aligning ship management practices covering the Asia-Pacific. The Stanford office continues operations both on commercial and technical management, covering the Atlantic and the U.S. Together with the Athens corporate headquarters in Europe, we maintain presence in Copenhagen for chartering operations covering the Atlantic and the continent. We are nearing completion of the integration of our commercial teams for the Supramax and Ultramax vessels, managing the second largest Ultramax-Supermax fleet globally, combining our freighting capabilities, aiming to improve our TCE performance. We are further rebalancing our sector employment strategy to include mortgage business and optimizing our fleet distribution between the Atlantic and We have introduced a plan maintenance procurement at cost control processes across the Singapore and Stanford offices and towards realizing operational cost reduction synergies. Significant synergies are expected from the centralization of the procurement of all stores, spare parts, bunkers and lubricants for the combined fleet. Crewing is gradually taken in-house with the expected cost reduction of $600 per vessel per day to be realized by Q2 2025. Dry docks of 12 X Eagleback vessels are planned following the merger and benefiting from Starbuck competitive pricing agreements with service providers and shipyards globally. Marine safety, quality, and technical maintenance standards, processes, policies, and systems are being applied across the combined fleet, aligning with the starboard right ship safety score and port state control performance. Please turn to slide seven, where we provide an operational update. Operating expenses was at $5,319 for Q2 2024. That net cash G&A expenses at $1,371 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. Slide 8 provides a fleet update and some guidance around our future dry dock and the relevant total of hired days. On the top right of the page, we provide our expected dry dock expense schedule, which will remain in 2024, estimated at 34.8 million for the dry docking of 38 vessels. In total, we expect to have approximately 966 off-hide days for the same period. On the bottom of the page, we have our CAPEX schedule, illustrating our new building CAPEX investment energy efficiency upgrade expenses, with 100 percent of our fleet by now being ballast water treatment fitted. Based on our latest construction schedule, our new-build investors are expected to be delivered in Q4 2025, Q2, and Q3 2026. In line with the EXI and CII regulations, we continue investing in upgrading our fleet with the latest operational technologies available aimed in improving our fuel consumption and reducing our environmental footprint, further enhancing the commercial attractiveness of the Starbucks fleet. Regarding our energy-saving devices program, we have completed 36 installations with 11 more vessels planned for retrofit by the end of the year. The above numbers are based on current estimates around dry dock, retrofit planning, vessel employment, and yard capacity. Please turn to slide 9 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 Q2 to sell two vessels for a total gross proceeds of $30 million, reducing our average fleet age and improving overall fleet efficiency. Following the rollover of the Eagle Park existing chartering contracts, we now have a total of 10 chartering vessels. We have five firm shipbuilding contracts with Kingdao Shipyard, with the construction of 82,000 Kamsa Max new building vessels, and with the first vessel delivering during Q4 next year. Considering the aforementioned changes in our fleet mix, we operate one of the largest dry bulk fleet amongst U.S. and European listed peers, with 159 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 Plakantonaki, for an ESG update.