Star Bulk Carriers Corp.

Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Starbuck Carriers Conference call on the first quarter 2025 financial results. We have with us today Mr. Petros Papas, Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Hamish Norton, President, Mr. Simos Spiro, and Mr. Christos Begleris, Co-Chief Executive Officers, Mr. Nikos Reskos, Chief Operating Officer, and Ms. Charles Plakopanaki, 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 on your telephone keypad followed by, I'm sorry, star one on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. I must advise you that this conference is being recorded today. We'll now pass the floor over to one of your speakers for today, Mr. Spiro. Thank you, sir. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. I'm Christos Begleris, Co-Chief Financial Officer of Starbuck Carriers, and I would like to welcome you to our conference call regarding our financial results for the first quarter of 2025. 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 first quarter highlight results, action taken to create value for our shareholders, cash evolution during the quarter, an update on the Eagle Bulk transaction, vessel operations, fleet update, the latest on the regulatory 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 2025 highlights. For the first quarter of this year, the company reported the following. Net income amounted to 0.5 million, with adjusted net loss of 7.8 million, or 0.07 adjusted loss per share. Adjusted EBITDA was 49 million for the quarter. During Q1, we repurchased 1.3 million shares for a total consideration of 19.6 million. For the first quarter, we declared a dividend per share of 5 cents payable on or on June 6, 2025. Despite the fact that no dividend would be due based on our existing dividend formula, our board of directors decided to continue prioritizing returns to shareholders, given the company's strong position. Our pro forma total cash today stands at $437 million. Meanwhile, our pro forma total debt stands at $1.2 billion. Through a non-drone revolver facility, we have additional liquidity of $50 million, resulting to pro forma liquidity of almost Finally, we currently have 13 debt-free vessels with an aggregate market value of $270 million. On the top right of the page, you will see our daily figures per vessel for the quarter. Our time, charter, agreement, and rate was $12,439 per vessel per day. Our combined daily OPEX and net cash GNA expenses per vessel per day amounted to $6,217. Therefore, our TCE less OPEX, less cash GNA is around $6,220 per day per vessel. Since the Eagleback transaction was completed on April 9, 2024, until today, the synergies achieved from integration resulted to almost 40 million. Integration process has been completed across all departments. Slide 4 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 intrinsic value for shares, and return capital to shareholders. In total, since 2021, we have taken actions of $2.6 billion in dividends, share buybacks, and debt repayments to create value for shareholders. At the same time, Starbuck has been growing the platform at opportune times through consecutive flip buyouts by issuing shares at or above net asset value. On the bottom of the page, we show our net debt evolution per vessel. Since 2021, our average net debt per vessel has decreased from 11.6 million per vessel to 5.4 million per vessel, which corresponds to a reduction of more than 50 percent. As a result of this deleveraging process, our current net debt is covered by the fleet scrap value. Slide 5 graphically illustrates the changes in the company's cash balance during the fourth quarter. We started the quarter with $441 million in cash. We generated positive cash flow for operating activities of $49 million. After including debt proceeds and repayments, capex payments for energy saving devices and balanced water treatment system installments, vessel sales proceeds, share buybacks, and the fourth quarter dividend payment, we arrived at a cash balance of $437 million at the end of the quarter. I will now pass the floor to our COO, Nikos Reskos, for an update on the Eagleback integration and our operational performance.

Thank you, Christos. Slide 6 provides an update on the Eagle integration and synergies. We continue to realize savings this quarter on the operating expenses front, have completed consolidation of ship management practices across the ex-Eagle vessels and offices with the company's headquarters, further reflecting our low general administrative expenses. Importantly, we expect to complete the phase-out of third-party crew managers by Q3 this year, replacing this critical function with our in-house crewing platform, and hence realizing further cost optimization. On completion of the last remaining crew changes, our dedicated crewing pool will comprise of more than 5,000 seafarers. operating expenses and GMA savings for the Eagle fleet stand close to $2,140 per vessel per day. In addition, due to our scale in relation to the shipyards and service providers, we have reduced significantly the drive-up costs of the former Eagle fleet, a saving of $8.6 million for the quarter. Interest expense savings have accumulated thanks to the refinancing of the former Eagle debt, which took place during the second quarter of 2024. Almost 40 million of cumulative cost synergies have been achieved since closing on the IngoBot transaction in April 2024. Our cost synergies for Q1 stand at 18.4 million. Please turn to slide seven, where we provide an operational update. Operating expense for Q1 2025 stands at $4,898 per vessel per day. Net cap chain expenses were 1,319 per vessel per day for the same period. In addition, we continue to rate at the top among our listed peers in terms of ride ship safety scores. Slide date provides a fleet update and some guidance around our future dry dock and the relevant total of high days. On the bottom of the page, we provide our expected dry dock expense schedule, which for the remaining of 2025 is estimated at $47 million for the dry docking of 38 vessels. In total, we expect to have approximately 1,210 of hard days for the same period. We have arranged to front-load dry docking first half this year in order to take advantage of the dry dock market seasonality during the second half of the year. On the top right of the page, we have our CAPEX schedule, illustrating our new building CAPEX and vessel energy efficiency upgrade expenses. Based on our latest construction schedule, our five COMSOMAX new building vessels, constructed at Kingsdale Shipyard, are expected to be delivered during the first half of 2026. For these vessels, we have secured $130 million of debt financing against the new building installments. In line with IMO carbon reduction regulations, we will continue investing and 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 Starbuck fleet. Regarding our energy saving technologies retrofit program, we have so far completed 42 installations with another 21 planned for 2025. Please turn to slide 9 for an update on our fleet. On the vessel sales front, we'll continue disposing non-ECO vessels opportunistically, reducing our average fleet age and improving overall fleet efficiency. During Q1, we agreed to sell some of our less efficient Supermax vessels, including Star Bittern, Star Omicron, and Strays of Francois. Furthermore, during the second quarter, we have further agreed to sell Star Puffin, Star Canary, and Star Petrel Supermax vessels at attractive levels. We expect to receive an aggregate net sale proceeds of $38.6 million in the second and third quarter of 2025. Following the roll-over of the Eagle Buck existing chartering contracts, we now have a total of nine chartering vessels. Considering the aforementioned changes in our fleet mix, we operate one of the largest level of fleet amongst U.S. and European listed peers, with 150 vessels on a fully delivered basis, and with an average age of 11.9 years. I will now pass the floor to our CSO, Haris Plakantonaki, for an update on recent global environmental regulation developments. Thank you, Niko.