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spk00: Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Synergy Maritime Holdings Corp fourth quarter 2021 and full year financial results presentation. Many of the remarks today contain forward-looking statements based on current expectations. These statements may often be identified with words such as expect, anticipate, believe or similar indications of future expectations. Although such forward-looking statements are considered to be reasonable, the company cannot assure you that any forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the company's ability to control or predict. Please refer to the company's annual report on Form 20F and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which discuss many of these risks and uncertainties. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialise or should underlying assumptions or estimates prove to be incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those the company expresses today. In light of the uncertainties inherent in any forward-looking statements, listeners are cautioned to not place undue reliance on these statements. The company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or future events. In the earnings presentation today, the company may reference non-GAAP financial measures such as EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income and TCE rate. For full reconciliation of the non-GAAP measures to GAAP measures, please see the company's earnings release posted to the news section of their website earlier today. Finally, the financial results presentation to be discussed today is available on the investor relations section of the company's website. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Stamatis Santanis. Please go ahead.
spk04: Hello, everyone, and welcome to our conference call for the fourth quarter and full year of 2021. Today, we are presenting a great earnings release with record financial figures and initiation of dividends. I must say, however, that we would prefer this release to have happened during a period of global peace and stability. Seizing the opportunity, I want to express our wish for a quick ceasefire of the recent military operations in Ukraine. In the fourth quarter of 2021, Synergy had another exceptional financial performance, ending with a record year for the company. The main drivers for these record results were our increased fleet capacity an improved capital structure and, of course, a favourable Cape Size market. On this note, I am very pleased to also announce the payment of a quarterly dividend of 5 cents per share, consisting of a regular dividend and a special dividend, as I will describe later. Moreover, we are repurchasing $5 million more of the remaining convertible note, which completes a program of approximately 26.7 million of securities buybacks since Q4 2021. We are therefore delivering on our commitment to reward and return capital to our shareholders. As mentioned in my introduction, 2021 has been a record year for Synergy in terms of operational and financial results. More specifically, in the quarter ended December 31, 2021, which generated net revenue of 56.7 million, with the respective full-year figure reaching 153.1 million, an increase of 142% versus the full year of 2022. An even more pronounced increase was marked on our adjusted EBITDA, with 38.8 million recorded in Q4 and 90.1 million on a full-year basis, and that represents 478% higher than the 2020 respective figure. Our fleet achieved a daily time-shutter equivalent of $36,600 in Q4, with the daily TCE standing at $27,400 for the full year of 2021. Over the last 18 months, we increased our fleet capacity by 70%, growing from 10 to 17 cape-sized vessels through total investments of about $205 million. Needless to say that the timing of our acquisitions has been impeccable and Synergy has the lowest fleet book value per deadweight among its listed dry peers. Despite the substantial growth, we reduced the loan-to-value of our fleet from 80% to around 42% as of the end of 2021, and we expect this to continue to reduce sharply in 2022. Our new financing transactions have totaled more than 170 million, while the weighted average interest cost has been reduced by approximately 130 basis points year over year. All of our fleet operates in period employment with some of the world's largest dribble chapters. Our unique agreements allow the ships to earn the increased market rates While we had some of the downside risk, we fixed time charters and conversions from floating to fixed rates. We have built a great cooperation with our clients and, in many cases, we are investing on our ships for the installation of scrubbers and energy-saving devices together with our clients. We have been pioneers in improving the energy efficiency index of our existing fleet since 2018. and we continue to make progress on installation of energy-saving devices at every vessel scheduled dry docking. With regards to our ESG program, these energy-saving projects are undertaken in cooperation with our charters and are usually underpinned by agreements to increase daily earnings to reflect the improved performance of our vessels. We have also initiated testings of biofuels on our cape sizes since last August with two of our charters. We will continue to be at the forefront of initiatives to reduce the environmental footprint of the ships in cooperation with our clients. Additionally, we have also employed a pilot solution to measure the carbon savings achieved by the improvements made on our vessels, and of course to monetize from that, as well as artificial intelligence on all of our vessels. Our company CSG report will be released within 2022 and will provide more details on the initiatives that Synergy has successfully completed to date as well as our targets going forward. As I mentioned earlier, we are delivering on our commitment to reward our shareholders with tangible returns. So today we are declaring a quarterly dividend of 5 cents per share. These 5 cents consist of the initiation of a regular quarterly dividend of 2.5 cents per share as well as a special dividend of 2.5 cents per share for our performance in Q4 2021. The total dividend of 5 cents per share will be paid on April 5th, 2022 to shareholders of record at the closing of March 25th, 2022. Given the positive dynamics of the drive-out market and our improved balance sheet, I'm confident in the sustainability of such capital returns. In addition to the dividend, we have also scheduled another buyback of 5 million of our outstanding convertible notes, which will be completed concurrently with a dividend payment. Thus, we complete a program of approximately 26.7 million of securities buybacks since Q4 2021, which is very impressive. Going forward, I expect the mix of capital returns between dividends and buybacks to to depend mainly on the dynamics of our share price. Moving to an update on commercial developments, in Q4 2021, our CAPE sizes made an average time chatter equivalent exceeding $36,600 per day, which was our highest in 12 years. In addition, we have concluded 11 new time chatter agreements with leading chatterers, and we have 15 of our 17 vessels employed on time chatters linked to the Baltic Cape Size Index. Two of our vessels are employed on fixed rates at daily levels exceeding $30,000 a day. This strategy ensures a very high fleet utilization while we track the Cape Size Index closely as charter rates rise. In many cases, we have embedded options to fix the daily earnings from floating to fixed, and we have exercised that option constructively in order to hedge a portion of our earnings from time to time. Our estimated time charter equivalent rate for the first quarter of 2022 is approximately $19,500 a day, which is 47% higher than the average BCI index year date. This assumes the remaining operating days of our index-linked TCEs will be equal to the current FFA rate. Another point I want to make is that the FFA average for the remaining of the year stands at around $32,200 per day and if this materializes for the full year, our annual EBITDA may exceed $130 million as our CFO Stavros Giftakis will explain shortly. Stavros will now offer more details on our financial reports and financing activities and it's now time to pass the floor to him. I will come back towards the end of the call for the market update. So Stavros, please go ahead.
spk03: Thank you, Stamatis. Let me first welcome everyone to our fourth quarter and full year earnings call for 2021. We will start by reviewing the main highlights of our financial statements. In the fourth quarter, the continued strength in the dry bulk market resulted in record financial performance for our company. Net vessel revenue was equal to $56.7 million, marking an increase of 166% from the fourth quarter of 2020. As mentioned earlier by Stamatis, our daily time charter equivalent for the quarter was $36,600, increased by 122% when compared to $16,500 for the fourth quarter of 2020. Adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter was approximately $39 million, up from $8.3 million in the same quarter of 2020, and net income for the quarter was a record $20.6 million compared to a net loss of $2.3 million in the same quarter last year. During the quarter, we recorded a one-time non-cash loss associated with a buyback of the convertible notes, which amounted to $6.9 million. Adjusted for this item, net income for the quarter was equal to $27.9 million. For the 12-month period that ended December 31, 2021, we recorded a daily time charter equivalent of $27,400. compared to $11,950 in the corresponding period of 2020. Net revenue was equal to $153.1 million, an increase of 142% from $63.3 million in the last year's corresponding interim period. Adjusted EBITDA for 2021 was $90.1 million, up from $15.6 million in 2020. I would like to also point out that the adjustment in the full year period also includes a $5.1 million non-cash charge for stock based compensation under our G&A expenses. Lastly, net income recorded in the period was equal to $41.3 million as compared to a net loss of $18.4 million in 2020. The year-over-year percentage increase in adjusted EBITDA of about 478% over a 129% increase in our TCE is a good demonstration of our company's significant operating leverage. Average daily operating expenses, excluding pre-delivery expenses, rose to $6,211, up by 9% compared to full year 2020. As discussed previously, we take a full-year approach on changes in our OPEX, avoiding the volatility from quarter to quarter, which may be associated with various factors, such as timing of purchases or the timing of crew changes. Leaving aside the increased costs having to do with integrating a number of new vessels in our operating and technical management platforms and for upgrading, of course, the technical condition of these new units, to our and our clients' standards, we have identified three main factors behind the increase in daily OPEX versus last year. Firstly, we have incurred tonnage tax expenses for certain vessels whose technical management has been transitioned in-house from a third-party technical manager. Secondly, several of our vessels incurred additional insurance expenses due to supplementary calls from the respective P&I clubs which were outside our control and expect to be non-recurrent. Lastly, crew-related expenses have gone up due to the pandemic and associated hurdles in timing, crew changes, additional crew travelling and accommodation expenses due to quarantine measures and other restrictions in the various ports of call. Moving on to our debt and financial expenses, we have managed to decrease our interest expense both in the fourth quarter of 2021 and in the full year period versus the previous year. Focusing on the cash interest expense, which excludes non-cash charges, in the fourth quarter of 2021, the company incurred approximately 2.9 million of cash interest and finance costs, down from 4.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2020. To highlight the positive impact of our increased scale, the interest expense per operating day in the fourth quarter of 2021 was $1,900 as compared to $4,060 in the fourth quarter of 2020. For the 12-month period that ended on December 31, 2021, interest and finance expense excluding non-cash items was equal to $11 million, when compared to $15.8 million in the last year. We are very pleased to see the significant reduction, which is tangible demonstration of the benefits of the recent debt repayments and refinancings. Given that these transactions have taken place within 2021, we expect to see further reductions in interest expenses in 2022 as we lap a full year with the new financing arrangements in place. Moving on to illustrate the improvement in our balance sheet position, the debt outstanding per vessel has been decreasing consistently over the past three years, a trend which accelerated in 2021. Total debt outstanding was approximately $240 million as of the end of 2021 on a fleet of 17 vessels with a total scrap value of approximately $240 million. This compares with $212 million outstanding debt at the end of 2020 on a fleet of 11 vessels with a total scrap value of $156 million adjusted for today's scrap prices. was $14.1 million against $19.3 million at the end of 2020. At the same time, average market value per vessel as of December 31, 2021 was approximately $30.4 million up from about $17.7 million at the end of 2020. Furthermore, Synergy has cash and cash equivalents of approximately $47 million at the end of 2021 compared to about $24 million at the end of 2020. Total shareholders' equity has increased to $245 million as of December 31, 2021, from $95.7 million at the end of 2020. The increase in vessel values since the start of the year means that the market value of our fleet is higher than the book value as of the latest balance sheet date. The market value adjusted equity is therefore higher than what is reflected on our balances. Based on third-party broker valuations as of the end of December, the market value of the seven vessels that were acquired this year has already appreciated by approximately 30 million since their acquisition. I view this as a clear demonstration of the successful timing in our move to rapidly expand the fleet in 2021, as highlighted previously by our CEO. Based on the market values for our fleet as per December 31st, Our corporate leverage is estimated at approximately 43%. It is encouraging to see the improvement in our balance sheet metrics during a time when the company has expanded aggressively and this constructive development has played an important role in determining our capital returns policy. As an update on our convertible notes, since the fourth quarter of 2021, we have retired 19 million, while we have scheduled to retire an additional 5 million imminently. As of the balance sheet date, approximately 1.85 million remained outstanding at our junior loans, which were fully repaid recently. I would now move on to discuss the financing transactions that have taken place since our last update in November. Within November, we closed the sustainability-linked loan with Piraeus Bank, which was utilized to refinance part of the acquisition cost of the worldship. The already competitive pricing of 3.05% can be reduced depending on the CO2 emissions of our vessel. It is good to see that our commitment in reducing the carbon footprint of our operations is being recognized and leads to potentially lower interest expenses. In December of last year, we executed on the refinancing of the GenuShip with a prominent Taiwanese lender, whereby we replaced a 10.5% coupon loan with a new 5-year facility priced at 3.5% over LIBOR. Looking forward, as mentioned in our third quarter update, we are currently in the process of addressing the two loan maturities that are secured by three of our vessels and are due in the fourth quarter of 2022. We recently announced the refinancing of the first of these facilities, which is secured by the partnership. Again here, a senior secured loan priced at 465% over LIBOR and a junior loan priced at 5.5% were replaced with a synthetic loan structure priced at 2.9% over SOFR. The last two transactions have also an important strategic angle for our company. Through financing in Taiwan and Japan, Next to our sale and leaseback activities in China, we have further expanded our strong footing in the prominent Asian ship financing market. Given our discussions with our existing and prospect lenders to date, I am very optimistic that the $22.4 million balloon due in December of 2022, which is secured by two of our Cape-sized vessels, will be easily refinanced in a timely fashion. Lastly, I would like to take the time here to talk about our company's operating scale. When compared to 2021, Synergy has an increased fleet size, reduced interest expenses and the potential for lower daily vessel operating expenses when factoring in the pre-delivery expenses incurred last year. As a result, there is a clear potential for higher EBITDA than in 2021, and this is something we have illustrated by sensitizing a 2022 EBITDA projection on the average level of the BCI in 2022. As a reminder, 2021 EBITDA was approximately 79 million at an average daily BCI level of about 33,000. If the CAPE size market in 2022 reaches a similar level, Synergy EBITDA would reach approximately 135 million. At this early point in the year, these projections are obviously subject to significant uncertainty, but the potential for increased profitability is clear. By this, I would like to conclude my review. I would now turn the call back to Stamatis, who will discuss the market and industry fundamentals. Stamatis?
spk04: Thank you, Stavros. Once again, I want to express a deep regret for the ongoing war in Ukraine. and our sincere hope for this situation to be resolved soon and with the fewest human casualties possible. Having said this, the initial assessment of the impact of the sanctions imposed on Russia, they appear to be quite positive. Historically, any disruptions in the established trade patterns usually create significant benefits from a ton-mile perspective, which is favouring vessel demand. In this case, for example, Millions of tons of coal for the global energy needs will have to be imported from longer distances. This we expect to increase the distance travel of our ships quite substantially. Going back to 2021, it was a remarkable year for the Cape size market as a robust demand recovery was combined with a limited fleet growth. During Q4 2021, the Cape size market experienced significant volatility as it reached a peak of $86,000 a day in October 2021, before closing the year at $19,000 a day. Following this period of volatility and the typical seasonal market slowdown that took place this February, both the spot market and the futures curve are now trending quite higher. As of today, the futures curve for the remaining of 2022 is trading in excess of $33,000 a day on average, and we expect that these levels will be exceeded. We remain very optimistic about the Cape size market prospects, as we are seeing the lowest level of lead growth over the past decades, combined with healthy demand globally for iron ore and coal. Beginning with iron ore, seaborne trade tonne miles expanded by 1.6% in 2021 and are expected to rise at a similar pace in 2022, with a significant rise noted in excess from Brazil. Vale, in Brazil, once again reiterated their annual guidance for about 330 million tonnes in 2022, which means that they will have to ramp up their exports considerably in the next three quarters to meet their targets, given that their exports year-to-date were at one of the lowest points of the recent years. This is a usual pattern we have seen many times, although this time we expect the upswing to be much, much bigger. It is also encouraging to note that China's credit impulse has been expanding recently and policy support has been announced for infrastructure and residential projects. Beyond China, I am glad to see that world steel production ex-China rose at a very fast pace in 2021 as year-over-year growth exceeded 10%. Steelmaker profit margins also remain high, which supports further our case for a healthy end market. Looking beyond 2022, the five-year extension granted to steel mills from the Chinese government for achieving their mission goals is expected to result in another boost to the market as steelmakers will be able to ramp up production. Meanwhile, seaborne coal trade was very supportive in 2021 as the increase in tonne miles exceeded 7%. A further rise is anticipated for 2022 and this is not just because of the recent war. Global economic growth has resumed after COVID and power generation demand remains very high. As Bremer Research notes, coal is forecasted to remain more profitable for European power utilities until 2024 as coal-to-gas switching prices increase. now indicate that it will not be profitable to switch from coal to gas before 2024, exceeding out from Q2 2023 last month. The gas supply crunch experienced by Europe this winter has been compounded by Russia's invasion in Ukraine. Demand is not the only positive aspect for the market, though. We have one of the lowest net fleet growth rates over the last 20-plus years, and the new building order book is also at historically low levels. Please note that the net fleet growth for 2022 is expected at less than 1.5%, while vessels above 15 years old make up for about 17% of the global fleet. It is evident that the supply dynamics are quite favorable at this point. There are two additional factors that are expected to have another significant impact on the supply side of the market. The new EEXI and CII regulations starting in 2023 will impose emission limits and slower steaming of the global fleet. Bearing in mind that two-thirds of the global fleet has been built prior to 2012, we expect in some cases that speed reduction could be substantial. These regulations are having implications in the new building and demolition markets as well. The uncertainty regarding the new standards of new building vessels in respect to engine and fuel type is deterring new vessel orders. At the same time, inefficient vintage vessels are likely to be sent to scrapyards as their competitiveness is expected to be compromised. As a result of the above demand-supply dynamics, we are likely to see massive freight rate upswings in the near future. I would like to conclude by saying that in the last years we have positioned synergy in a very favorable position to benefit from these opportunities. Our homogeneous fleet and the improvements we are making in the energy efficiency of our vessels will retain our advantageous place in the super cycle for years to come. Thank you very much and on that note I will pass the call to the operator to receive questions. Thank you.
spk00: thank you as a reminder if you would like to ask a question please press star and one on your keypad and to cancel your request you can press the hash key so once again that's star and one if you would like to ask a question your first question today is from the line of magnus fear from hc wainwright please go ahead yes uh good afternoon and congrats to a great quarter uh just uh
spk06: some questions on on the capital allocation I mean you institute a new dividend policy and you know buying back some of the converts how should we think about that going forward with the uncertainties you know in the market currently hello Magnus good morning thank you so we generally expect to continue our regular dividend as we have announced
spk04: And depending quarter on quarter, depending on the financial results, we expect to increase the special dividend as well. So this is pretty much the capital allocation. As far as other repurchases are concerned, then it all depends on where the stock is trading. I don't know whether we're going to do any additional convertible repurchases. We've already reduced that down to a very small number. So we will just monitor the stock price and we might do a combination of repurchases and dividends, special dividends or something like that. So it's going to be on a quarter-by-quarter basis depending on the rates.
spk06: Okay. And just on the chartering, I mean, the first quarter has been weak on a seasonal basis. You said that you're seeing strength now. How should we think about the seasonality going forward, you know, two Q versus one Q, I mean, and the second half of 2022. Do you see that playing out differently this year?
spk04: Right. So Q1 has been quite weak, but we have managed to overperform that by about more than 40%, if I remember well. I think we're going to close the quarter in excess of 19,500 a day, where the quarter's date is at 13,000 or 14,000. So we've done a very good work to overperform Q1 index. In respect of Q2, Q3, and Q4, right now the futures say that the rates will be around $32,000 to $33,000. We are taking some cover in the future, either in Q2 or some Q2, Q3, and Q4 as well. We don't want to be greedy and wait to make $50,000 or $100,000 or whatever, so we're fixing some of the base, and we will continue doing so when we see peaks in the FFA curve in the contracts that we are able to convert from floating fixed.
spk06: Okay, very good. That's it from me. Thank you.
spk04: Thank you, Magnus. Have a great day.
spk00: Thank you. The next question is from the line of Tate Sullivan from Maxim Group. Please go ahead.
spk07: Hi, good day all. And wow, a lot of developments to go over and great dividend announcement. And so I guess starting with the buyback subsequent to 4Q, can you talk just about the use of cash versus adding cheaper debt to pay down in the convertible notes? I mean, 19 plus the five, that additional. And then warrants, so will you use mostly cash to do that or debt? Can you go into some of how the pro forma balance sheet will look like, please?
spk04: Hi, Dave. Good morning. Thank you for your question. We are generally not planning to take more debt in order to reduce the convertible or, of course, pay dividends. So what we're doing now in respect of financing has been in the normal course of business to refinance the assets that were up for refinancing. So any excess costs rising from these finances is quite coincidental. We expect to use cash flow from operations, which appears to be quite strong, in order to continue with the dividend payments. And if there are any buybacks in the future, we will use cash flow from operations.
spk07: And I think in this quarter as well, in the fourth quarter, the convertible note buybacks led to a non-cash expense. Can you give that estimate given the scale of what you're buying back in the first quarter? Or is there any?
spk04: Right. Now, in Q4, yes, we did have an impact, which is a non-cash impact, which we had to take. In Q1, there's a strange thing because the accounting rules may change. And whatever we have bought back might not even hit the P&L, believe it or not, because there's a new accounting standard which comes into effect from the 1st of January of 2022. However, there might still be a charge, which we don't know yet. We expect to make this assessment. If that happens, it's going to be in the region of $3 million for Q1. But again, it might happen, it might not happen, depending on how the new rules, the new accounting standards are being implemented. So we cannot really give a guidance yet. On the conservative side, I would say $3 million shift, non-cast.
spk07: Thank you. And I'll turn – last one before turning over to some other questions. Have you – and it's great with the dividend. I mean, most of the dry bulk public companies now have the dividend. I mean, change from four months ago. Are you targeting a payout ratio going forward, or how are you looking at that?
spk04: Well, for the time being, until the dust settles, to be honest, with all this volatility, we expect to have a mix of regular and special dividend the way that we've structured so far. So depending on each quarter, the board will assess the company's prospects, the cash flows, the financial results, and we will do as the previous quarter tells us. When we have a bigger clarity about the future and we're able to fix more long-term business, then, of course, you know, there's going to be more substantial payout. But so far, we're very comfortable with the way that we have approached this policy, regular plus special. And, you know, it's going to take a few quarters to see how that's going to play out. Okay. Right.
spk07: Thank you very much. Have a great day.
spk04: Thanks, Dave. Have a great day.
spk00: Thank you. The next question is from the line of Randy Givens from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
spk02: Howdy, Team Synergy. How's it going?
spk04: Hey, Randy. Hi. Good morning.
spk02: Good morning, morning. I guess just following up on a few things here. On the chartering side, you have a handful of these kind of index link charters that expire between it looks like April and December of this year, maybe a few into next year. Is the plan to kind of continue those indexing charters, switch them to spot, do a longer term time charter? We've seen some two plus year time charters in the market. So any appetite for any of those?
spk04: Well, first of all, our ships are in great demand. So all the charters want to renew the charters that we have in place. So most likely all of these vessels will be renewed at pretty much the same terms or better. We are negotiating with the charters with the installation of energy-saving devices and other investments we do on the ships. And we usually achieve a higher index rate, index multiple, compared to the previous. So chances are that we will likely continue on the same commercial strategy. I don't think we will switch back to spot. We like the way we are because it offers the flexibility of employment and converting from floating to fixed, so we like it the way it is when we want to. So it will most likely remain the same, and if the opportunity arises, we will fix more and more tonnage on longer periods if we see two, three, four years above $30,000 a day. then is there a percentage or a ratio is it earnings linked on the kind of floating kind of component of the dividend going forward or how is that assessed not really we actually do it on the available cost of the company so it's a combination of the earnings the net income as well as the available cost so we will not give a formula yet because we don't feel comfortable in giving a formula for the special dividend, you know, with all this volatility happening. When we have more stability around the world and on the rates, we will likely give a more, you know, concrete dividend formula for the special dividend. Sure.
spk02: All right. That's it, really. And then I guess just last question. You touched on it briefly there in terms of China extending steel emission targets and other things. Any big impacts you're seeing on the iron ore or coal trade in the near term related to any of these environmental issues?
spk04: Well, there are two super major events happening right now that are not necessarily associated with environmental drives. The first one is the war in Ukraine, where Russia is exporting 50 million tons of coal to Europe. With all these sanctions, as you understand, 50 million tons or up to 50 million tons will need to be imported from longer distances. And we're talking about much bigger distances here. We're talking about Australia, South Africa, Central America, North America. So Europe needs coal, a lot of coal, and Russia right now is on sanctions. So up to 50 million tons a year might be diverted from much, much longer distances. The second is the guidance from Vale in Brazil, where it appears that the Brazilian exports need to effectively double up from now until year end in order to meet the target. So they have been exporting around 500,000 to 600,000 tons a day, and that needs to be a million two in order for them to reach the target. So we expect a massive increase of long ton miles. We are not seeing that yet, but the market has surely picked up from last month. And in our opinion, these two super important events will have a major role on the bigger dry bulk chips. Got it.
spk02: Yep, yep. Good deal. Well, hey, that's it for me. Thanks for having me. Take care. Thanks, Rami.
spk00: Thank you. The next question is from the line of Jay Mintzmeier from Value Investors Edge. Please go ahead.
spk01: Good afternoon, gentlemen. Congrats on a fantastic breakout quarter for you guys.
spk04: Thanks, Dave. Good morning.
spk01: Yeah, it's great to be on the call here as an investor. I've been following Synergy for a long time. Lots of great questions. I'm glad to see the call has been well populated. Don't have too much to add. I did want to ask, what's the exact balance of the remaining convertible notes? Exactly how much nominally is still out there for you guys? Hi, Jay, this is Stavros. The remaining balance is $11.6 million. Copy, $11.6 million, and is that owned exclusively by Jelco?
spk03: Yes, indeed.
spk01: Okay. Now that the stock is trading above $120, is there any potential to repurchase those, or is it basically just they're just going to sit out there until Jelco exercises them?
spk04: Well... We're not sure, to be honest, about Gelco's intentions. You know, they might exercise some of that. They might continue making the coupon. So, you know, at these levels now, it's really less than 5% of our total indebtedness. So it doesn't really make any significant role either on the capital structure or on the balance sheet altogether.
spk01: Yeah, it's a pretty small number at this point. I know the dividend's already been discussed a little bit, but I've been receiving a lot of questions on my end Is the intention that the 0.25 cents or 10 cents a year is kind of a base? Obviously, you can't guarantee it, but that's kind of a base, and then each quarter is going to be different?
spk04: Yes, this is a base, and we expect to top it up every quarter depending on the available cash and, you know, earnings of the company.
spk01: Certainly makes sense. And then just looking at the share price today, you know, you still traded a meaningful discount to NAV. It seems like you have an unencumbered cape size vessel left. Is there any appetite to finance that cape size and do some repurchases, or do you want to just keep that cape size unencumbered?
spk04: We're just going to remain the way that we are right now. We have this leverage if we want to exercise that at a future stage. We expect to see how the volatility in the market is going to play out because The stock has had a good run from $0.85 to $1.30, $1.35. So we are quite content with the way that the stock has run the last few weeks. And we're pretty sure that we will eventually catch up and exceed the NAV target. So we'll see how that goes. But so far, we're not going to make any actions because when you have swings on the Dow Jones and the S&P of 2% or 3% a day, you know, it's kind of hard to try to predict how the stock is going to react.
spk01: Yeah, certainly. That's fair. Well, you guys have been doing a great job, so I'm looking forward to next quarter.
spk04: Thank you, Jay. Nice talking to you.
spk00: Thank you. We have a follow-up from the line of Tate Sullivan at Maxim Group. Please go ahead.
spk07: Thank you for taking my follow-up. So, with the cost of debt I see in your slide deck for the fiscal year 2021 was 4.8%, but After paying down the convertible modes, after taking into account the refinancing, can you give a rough estimate of where that could be for fiscal year 22?
spk03: Sure. The weighted average cost of debt at 4.8% in 2021 is a bit skewed because the repayments of the most expensive facilities were done towards the fourth quarter. At the same time, I mean, we took out also very experienced facility in the beginning of the 2022. So in 2022, we expect the weighted average cost of capital to be around, of debt to be around 4% or even slightly higher, 375 all in.
spk07: Thank you for that. And then you also on that slide provide an indicative debt ratio going down from 45 to 36% is significant. Is that based on your assumptions of the market value for the vessels in a year or how are you running that?
spk03: No, no, no, no, no, no.
spk07: Additional debt pay down.
spk03: No, no, no, no, no. This is debt to total assets on a book value basis. So it's just debt repayment what you see. Just the repayments.
spk07: Okay, great. And just the last one for me, I mean, very positive market commentary for rates going forward. And then, I mean, your presentation is indicating the average FFA for 2022 at 28,900. But I think I heard you say, I mean, the potential for rates to be back up to 50 to 100. I mean, can you put some more context around there and how much you keep floating?
spk04: Well, I certainly believe that 2022 will have much stronger fundamentals than 2021. Some of them were expected and some of them were unexpected due to the war in Ukraine. So if last year with worse fundamentals we saw $85,000 in Q3, then one can assume that you will see stronger rates in 2022. But I don't want to give a figure. Once again, demand and supply fundamentals appear to be super strong, especially for the larger shape sizes, for the larger ships like shape sizes that now appear to start to break upwards. So it remains to see how that is going to play out in the next three quarters of the year.
spk07: Okay, thank you. And then with that outlook, just a quick follow-up, is it still a favorable scenario to continue to evaluate buying additional ships?
spk04: Well, I think we have other priorities. We did a very strong fleet increase last year. We expect to remain at these fleet levels. I mean, we have plenty of liquidity right now to continue rewarding our shareholders and possibly, you know, look to buy, you know, one or two ships sometime in 2022. But there's absolutely nothing right now on the horizon. I mean, we will focus in rewarding our shareholders right now.
spk07: Okay, great. Well, thank you for all the detail. Great to hear. You're very welcome.
spk00: Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pofrat from Noble Capital. Please go ahead.
spk05: Afternoon. Can you be a little more specific on what you've locked up in the second quarter as far as FFAs and then time charters?
spk04: Of course. Hi, Dave. Good morning. Stavros will give you this information.
spk05: Hi, hi, Paul.
spk03: So we have four ships right now which we have converted from floating rates to fixed. Two have been converted at an average of $22,500. Two have been converted on an average of $30,000. And then we have the two ones that are running on fixed rates, which are at $31,500 on average. So in total, we have six ships on fixed rates. At another, it's a PCE of around 28,000, as matters stand now.
spk05: Okay, great. And Stembers, can you just talk about your forward-looking cost structure? You know, you highlighted some of the one-time items, whether it's pre-delivery costs or taxes and insurance, but how should we be looking at your costs going forward?
spk03: Look, I think on basically the DNA and the OPEX front, what you've seen in the fourth quarter is basically a bit higher versus what you should expect going forward. So on OPEX, I would expect average OPEX per day between 6,200 and 6,500. And on the DNA front, I would expect around 8 to 8.5 million cash and around 12 million to 12.5 million including the non-cash items on the GNA front. Now in terms of debt, I mean, you know our motorization, we have around 8 million repayments per quarter which are going down to around 7 million in 2023 when the front loading in most of our facilities will be over. And then our interest expense, it's around $2.5 million per quarter, which is expected to reduce to around $2 million per quarter in 2023 and onwards.
spk05: Great. That's helpful. And then, Stimonis, can you just go back? I hate to beat the dead horse, but can you just talk about your dividend, paying a dividend versus buying stock back? You know, most of January, your stock was under $1. but you didn't buy any stock back. You know, here you are, the stock's up a little bit, you know, and you're paying a cash dividend. Can you just talk about, you know, just that tradeoff between buying stock back and paying a dividend?
spk04: Of course, yes. First of all, we did actually buy back securities, and that was the convertible securities. So Q1 and Q1 so far, we will have repurchased $10 million of convertible securities. And that means that we are averting a dilution for a shareholder. So it's quite significant. For us, the priority was to reduce these interest-bearing nodes that not only reduce the cash expense of the company by reducing the interest expense of this $10 million, but also we are averting the dilution arising from the conversion of this convertible security. So in my opinion, I think that eliminating this out of the capital structure comes as a first priority. Second priority was the dividend, which of course we have been looking into that for quite some time. We have been discussing about it, if you remember, since August, September last year, and we now pay a substantial dividend which if you annualize that, we're talking about 16%, 17% of the dividend yield. I think that these two elements, I mean eliminating the dilution and the payment of dividend, will help the stock price rise on its own at higher levels. This is our estimate, of course, without any commitment. We think that this is going to affect the stock price positively. It's going to bring in investors that are seeking to get some dividend returns from the market and not only speculators, you know, willing to do the quick up and down of the stock price. So having said all that, we will continue to monitor the situation. And if the opportunity arises, you know, comparing buybacks, common stock buybacks and anything else, we will consider that at a time.
spk05: Great. And then just one last one. Stavros, can you just talk about working capital in the fourth quarter? You know, to get to cash, year-end cash of $47 million, you know, working capital seems like it went up a lot in the fourth quarter. Can you talk about, you know, how much it might have gone up, and then also what's going to happen in 2022 as far as working capital?
spk03: Okay, so we expect, I mean, the change in working capital to be around $13 million. You will see in our balance sheet, I mean, we have a current, in the current portion of long-term debt, the upcoming balloons. So the balance sheet picture will be a bit different than compared to what you see. But cash continues to be strong. I mean, we closed the year with $47 million. We have currently, after having repaid the convertibles, around $45 million. At the TCE that Stamatis discussed before for the first quarter, we're making money. We're not burning money. So even after the dividend distribution, we expect our cash position to be higher than 2 million per vessel. So we're pretty comfortable with our working capital.
spk05: Okay, great. You know, I don't think you're that exposed just because of the way your charters work, but can you just talk about the spike in fuel spreads or bunker fuels and how you're, you know, potentially managing that, whether you have any exposure to, you know, higher bunker fuel?
spk04: That's actually one of the great, great things that we have managed to achieve when we converted all the ships into periods on an index basis. we don't have the risk of bunkering and we don't have the risk of bunker fluctuations for the rates, sorry, for the price per ton moving from $500, $600 up to $1,000. So that's one of the great, great things that have happened to us by switching into these index-linked employment agreements. So it doesn't really affect it. I think that A lot of ships will be slowing down altogether, which is going to help supply going down. I mean, 10 tons a day, if you slow down at $1,000, it's really a very significant number in respect of the banker cost. So this actually adds up significantly into the market fundamentals for a much higher rate.
spk05: Great. Thanks for your time.
spk04: Thank you, Paul. Have a great day.
spk00: Thank you. And there are no further questions at this time, so I'll hand back to the speakers.
spk04: Thank you very much. Thank you for listening in to our call, and we will be providing other updates, corporate updates of the company in the next few weeks. Thank you very much. Have a great day, everyone.
spk00: Thank you. This does conclude the conference for today. Thank you for participating, and you may now.
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