Star Bulk Carriers Corp.

Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Star Bowl Carriers Conference call on the fourth quarter 2024 financial results. We have with us Mr. Petros Papas, Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Hamish Norton, President, Mr. Simo Spirou and Mr. Christos Begleras, Co-Chief Financial Officers, Mr. Nikos Reskos, Chief Operating Officer, and Mrs. Harris Plotantinaki, Chief Strategy Officer of the company. At this time, participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question-and-answer session, at which time, if you would like 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 will now pass the floor to one of our speakers, Mr. Spiro. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, operator. I'm Simo Spiro. Co-Chief Financial Officer of Starball Carriers, and I would like to welcome you to our conference call regarding our financial results for the fourth 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 Q4 results Starbucks investment proposition, actions taken to create value for our shareholders, cash evolution during the quarter, an update on the Equibalk 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 fourth quarter 2024 highlights. For the fourth quarter 2024, the company reported the following. Net income amounted to 42 million with adjusted net income of 41 million or 35 cents adjusted earnings per share. Adjusted EBITDA was 104 million for the quarter. On December 2024, we announced and amended our dividend policy alongside the new 100 million share repurchase program. Under this policy, the company may allocate up to 60% of excess cash flow towards dividends, with the remainder reserved for opportunistic share buybacks, growth initiatives, and fleet renewal. For the fourth quarter, the excess cash flow amounted to $17.6 million, and as per our new dividend policy, we declared a dividend per share of $0.09, payable on or about March 18, 2025, and we repurchased 500,000 Starbucks shares for a total amount of $7.4 million on an average price of $14.83 per share. Since December 2024, that we renewed our share repurchase program, we have bought back and subsequently canceled 893,000.5 shares for a total cost of $13.5 million at an average price of $15.08. As of today, the number of shares outstanding is 117,127,531. Our pro forma total cost today stands at 452 million. Meanwhile, our pro forma total debt stands at 1.3 billion. In February 2025, we received a credit committee approval for a senior secure revolving facility of an amount up to 50 million. Finally, we currently have 13 debt-free vessels with an aggregate market value of $250 million, and we will have raised additional costs of approximately $28 million to be used for fleet renewal and general corporate purposes. On the top right of the page, you will see our daily figures per vessel for the quarter. Our time charter equivalent rate was $16,129 per vessel per day. Our combined daily OPEX and net cash GNA expenses per vessel per day amounted to $6,320. Therefore, our CC, less OPEX and cash GNA, is around $9,809 per vessel per day. Since the EGLIPAL transaction was completed on April 9, 2024, until today, the synergies achieved from the integration resulted to an amount approximately 22 million, and we have reached the threshold of 50 million in annualized synergies almost 12 months before our original schedule. Slide four provides an overview of the company's capital allocation policy over the last three years and the various levers we have used to strengthen the company, increase the intrinsic value of our shares, and return capital to shareholders. Starbuck has been growing the platform through consecutive free buyouts by issuing shares at or above NAV. In total, since 2021, we have taken actions of 2.6 billion to create value for our shareholders. On the bottom of the page, we show our net debt evolution per vessel. Our average net debt per vessel has decreased from 12.9 million per vessel to 5.4 million dollars per vessel, a reduction of more than 50%. As a result of this deleveraging process, our current net debt is covered by the fleet's crop value. Slide 5 graphically illustrates the changes in the company's cash balance during Q4. We started the quarter with $473 million in cash. We generated positive cash flow from operating activities of $76 million. After including debt proceeds and repayments, CAPEX payments for ESD and ballast water treatment installations, and the third quarter dividend payment, we arrived at a cash balance of $441 million at the end of the fourth quarter. And I will now pass the floor to our Chief Operating Officer, Nikos Reskos, for an update on the EagleBulk integration and our operational performance.

Thank you, Simon. Slide 6 provides an update on the Eagle integration and synergies. We continue to realize savings on the operating expense front, as we take in-house accruing of the former Eagle fleet, phasing out third-party managers, and having centralized procurement on all stores, spare parts, bunkers, and lubricants. Oversight of technical management of the former Eagle fleet has been consolidated in the company's headquarters in Athens, along with the implementation of uniform maintenance protocols and marine safety standards, reflected in our long general administrative expenses. For Q4, the OPEX and GMA savings for the Eagle fleet stood at $1,685 per vessel per day. In addition, due to our scale in relation to the yards and service providers, we have reduced significantly the driving costs of the former... 4.4 million for the quarter. Interest expense savings have accumulated thanks to the refinancing of the former legal debt, which still lays in Q2 of 2024. Cumulative cost synergies since closing stand at 22 million. Our Q4 2024 synergies stand at 4.6 million, implying the run rate of 50 million in annualized synergies that Simos mentioned before. Please turn to slide 7, where we provide an operational update. OPEX for the fourth quarter stood at $5,056 and $5,123 for the full year of 2024. Net cash GMA expenses were $1,264 per day and $1,284 per day for the same period, respectively. We continue to rate at the top among our listed peers in terms of rideship safety scores. Slide A provides a quick update and some guidance around our future dry dock and the relevant total of hired days. On the bottom of the page, we provide our expected driver expense schedule, which for 2025 is estimated at 68 million for the dry docking of 53 vessels. In total, We expect to have approximately 1,340 of these for the same period. In order to take advantage of the current slower market, we have arranged the front-load dry documents during Q1 2025. On the top right of the page, we have our CAPEX schedule, illustrating our new-building CAPEX investment energy efficiency upgrades. Based on our latest construction schedule, Our new building vessels are expected to be delivered in Q4 2025 and the first half of 2026. For these vessels, we have secured $130 million worth of debt refinancing and debt delivery installments. In line with the EXI and CII regulations, we continue to invest in upgrading our fleet with the latest operational technologies available, aimed at improving our fuel consumption and reducing our environmental footprint. further enhancing the commercial attractiveness of the start-up fleet. Regarding the energy saving devices retrofit program, we have completed 42 installations by the end of 2024. We will launch retrofit on over 23 vessels with ESDs during 2025. Please turn to slide 9 for an update of our fleet. On the vessel sales front, we will continue disposing low-level vessels . we sold 13 vessels for total gross profits of $233 million, reducing our average fleet base and improving overall fleet efficiency. During Q1, we agreed to sell module vessel Peter that is expected to be delivered to our new owners in Q2 2025. Following the rollover of the Eagle bulk, existing chartering contracts, we now have a total of 10 chartering vessels. for the construction of five new buildings. Considering the formation changes in our fleet mix, we operate on the largest drywall fleet among U.S. and European leaders with 155 vessels on a fully-delivered basis and an average age of 11.8 years. I will now pass the floor to our Chief Strategy Officer, Haris Plakatonaki, for an energy update.