Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp.

Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Synergy Maritime Holdings Corp conference call on the first quarter ended March 31st, 2024 financial results. We have with us Mr. Stamatis Tsantanis, Chairman and CEO, and Mr. Stavros Giftakis, Chief Financial Officer of Synergy Maritime Holdings Corp. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. There will be the question and answer session, at which time, if you would like to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone keypad. and you will then hear an automatic message advising your hand is raised. Please be advised that this conference call is being recorded today, Wednesday, May 15th, 2024. The archived webcast of the conference call will soon be made available on the Synergy website, www.synergymaritime.com, under the webcast and presentations sections under the investor relations page. Many of the remarks today contain forward-looking statements based on the current expectations. Actual results may differ materially from the results projected from those forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning factors that can cause the actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements is contained in the first quarter ended March 31st, 2024 earnings release, which is available on the Synergy website again, www.synergymaritime.com. I would now like to turn the conference over to one of your speakers today, the chairman and CEO of the company, Mr. Stamatis Tsantanis.

Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Operator. Hello, I would like to welcome everyone to our conference call.

Today, we are presenting the financial results for the first quarter of 2024 and an update of our recent corporate developments. I'm pleased to report that in a three-month period that ended on March 31, 2024, Synergy achieved record profitability, generating a net income of approximately $10 million in the usual weakest quarter of the year for the Cape Size segment. After a volatile 2023, in 2024 has started very strongly for the dry bullock market, with the Baltic Cape size index staging its best first quarter performance in more than 10 years. Synergy was optimally positioned to take advantage of this positive market environment, leading to its best performing first quarter on record. Our fleet produced net revenues of 38.3 million versus 18 million in the same period last year, more than double, corresponding to an average time charter equivalent rate of more than $24,000 per day, roughly in line with the current average BCI. The improved terms achieved on rechartering our vessels over the past quarters are effective hedging activities, and the high-specification vessels comprising our fleet have proven to be important drivers of our positive commercial performance and form important pillars of our long-term corporate strategy. Looking towards the second quarter of 2024 and based on the current FFA levels, we expect our daily TCE to be equal to about $26,400 per day, likely outperforming the capesize market by a wide margin. Beyond that, for the second half of the year, we have converted about one-third of our ownership days at a fixed daily rate of approximately $30,000. As a general principle, during the currently healthy market conditions, we are keen to secure attractive fixed daily rates that can generate high free cash flow and solid returns on capital, and we remain vigilant in that respect. In light of our strong performance and consistent with our commitment to rewarding our shareholders, our Board of Directors has authorized another special dividend of 12.5 cents for the quarter, in addition to a regular quarterly dividend of 2.5 cents. for a total quarterly dividend of 15 cents per share. As the year progresses and we gain more visibility on market conditions, we will be evaluating the best options to further increase capital returns to our shareholders. We view this as an important priority for Synergy, and to this effect, we have declared $1.60 of dividends, cash dividends per share, or approximately $30 million since the initiation of our policy in 2022. Given the strong Cape size outlook, we are optimistic that Synergy is well positioned to continue executing on our clear corporate strategy, which entails rewarding our shareholders generously while growing and renewing our fleet. Now turning to efforts to grow our fleet, since the beginning of the year we have agreed to acquire two more Japanese Cape-sized vessels built in 2013 and 2012. Specifically, the 2013-built ICON ship will be delivered to us promptly and the 2012-built-to-be-named Cape-sized vessel is expected to be delivered to us between July and October this year. The combined acquisition cost of $69.3 million will be funded through cash on hand and debt. As an indication of the good timing of these transactions, the current combined market value of these two vessels has appreciated by more than 10%. Before I pass the floor to Stavros, our CFO, for his review of our financials. I would like to add that I am very pleased to see Synergy operating in a balanced manner within our stated business objectives and I view this quarter's strong financial performance as a vindication of our long-term corporate strategy. Thank you, Stomati. I would like to welcome everyone from my side as well to our first earnings call for 2024. Let us start by reviewing the main highlights of our financial statements for the period. We had another great quarter while we achieved the record first quarter profitability, as strong Cape-sized freight rates continued dominating the market. Our net revenue was equal to $38.3 million, more than double compared to the respective period last year, while our time-chartered equivalent reached $24,100, very close to the average BCI for the quarter. Our adjusted EBITDA rose to $23.2 million during the first quarter, almost five-fold from the respective figure of last year. Our net income was $10.2 million compared to a net loss of $4.2 million last year, which translates to an ETS of $0.50. Moving on to our balance sheet, I am pleased to say that our cash position remained strong and almost intact in the first quarter of 2024, standing at 24.2 million or approximately 1.4 million per vessel. This was achieved despite consistent dividend payments, almost 8 million advances for the announced vessel acquisitions and a regular debt repayment. With regard to debt outstanding, This stood at $223 million at the end of the first quarter, translating to a modest loan-to-value ratio of approximately 40%. Finally, total shareholders' equity amounted to $241 million as of March 31, 2024. Let's now delve into the refinancing activities we completed in the first quarter. We agreed with one of our close lending partners to enter into three separate sale and leaseback agreements of $58.3 million in aggregate to refinance ELA ship and Patriot ship and to partly finance the acquisition of ICON ship. Under these agreements, the vessels will be sold and subsequently leased back on a bare-bottom basis for a five-year term starting from the delivery date of each vessel. Synergy will retain continuous options to repurchase the vessels at predetermined prices throughout the bare boat charter period. Upon the completion of the bare-bottom term, Synergy has an obligation to purchase the vessels for an aggregate amount of approximately $31.5 million. Its financing will bear interest of three-month term SOFR plus 2.55% per annum, representing a sizable reduction of approximately 120 basis points compared to the rates of the refinanced agreements. In aggregate, for the three vessels, the financing will amortize over 20 consecutive quarterly installments, averaging approximately 1.3 million per quarter. At the same time, we are in advanced discussions with potential financiers to partially finance the acquisition of our second capsized vessel, securing favorable terms for synergy and minimizing the impact on our liquidity for the completion of this acquisition. The new financings and refinancings are expected to minimally affect Synergy's loan-to-value, kept at a modest 43% based on the current market value of our fleet and in line with our financing strategy. It is worth noting that Synergy does not have any balloon payment due until the second quarter of 2025. Considering our proactive hedging activities, with several index-linked charters having been converted to fixed, as discussed earlier by Stamati, combined with our prudent financing strategy, we expect consistency on the profitability and liquidity fronts in the next quarter. This can enable us to continue delivering value to our shareholders and rewarding their investment. This concludes my review. I will now turn the call back to Stamatis, who will discuss the market and industry fundamentals. Stamati? Thank you, Stavros. For the first quarter of 2024, the Cape size market remained at elevated levels in continuation of the strong market conditions seen in the fourth quarter of the previous year. The strong start runs contrary to the usual seasonality and was driven by increased on-mile demand during a time when the supply of ships has been restricted, both due to the low new building ordering in the previous years and restricted traffic through Panama and Suez canals. Brazilian iron ore exports rose more than 10% compared to last quarter as Vale managed its highest export rate since 2019. China's port iron ore stockpiles reached a low point in 2023, driving demand for imports, restocking basically, and leading to an increase of about 7.2% year on year in 2024. Additionally, coal imports rose by around 13% during a period of low domestic production. For the current year, China steel production is expected to remain at high levels seen in 2023, with demand driven mainly by manufacturing, infrastructure, and that's a global thing, and exports amidst a continuing weak real estate market. Outside China, steel production in the rest of the world has been particularly strong over the past six months, lending support to iron ore and capesize demand, a trend that is expected to continue during the current year. Similarly, Indian coal generated electricity reached record high levels in the first quarter, building on a positive trend playing out over the past few years. Moving on to bauxite. that has had a substantial effect in complementing iron ore cargoes for Cape-sized vessels. Projections for aluminium demand are generally supportive for the next year due to healthy manufacturing trends globally, while longer-term aluminium is also likely to play an important role in energy transition. Volume growth is expected to be 8% and 5% higher respectively in 2024 and 2025, with the ton-mile effect being even larger as the share of long-term Western African cargoes expands. Beyond the specific cage size demand, the general dry bulk market has also been supported by strong grain and coal cargo flows amidst the disruption of ship traffic seen both in Panama and Suez Canals, the Red Sea. This has had a positive psychological effect on our market as well, on top of the marginal improvement in actual market balance. Overall, 2024 ton-mile demand growth for the Cape-sized cargoes is expected to be about 3-4% higher, and given the current momentum, demand is expected to rise in 2025 with projected ton-mile growth by at least 2.5%. Turning on to vessel supply, the order book for Cape-sized vessels is at one of the lowest points seen in more than 20 years. Overall, net Cape-sized fleet growth is expected to be around 1.5% in 2024 and 1% in 2025, very low, which is considerably lower than the respective 10-mile demand growth figures. This is already reflected in the second-hand and new building vessel prices that have risen steadily since last year, as well as the healthy time chatter market rates that the chatterers are willing to pay. Before I conclude, I just want to note that we are of course aware of George Economos' investment in Synergy and his subsequent complaint against the company and its board of directors. At Synergy, our priority is executing our strategy and creating value for our shareholders. Indeed, as demonstrated by our results today, the actions we are taking have us well positioned to capture opportunities and reward shareholders both today and in the long term. Our board and management team will continue taking actions that we determine to be in the best interest of our company and our shareholders. To that end, we are addressing Mr Economo's complaint as appropriately. That said, we are here today to talk about our financial results and our strategies, and that's it. To close today's call, we want to emphasise our aim to balance our strategic objectives of rewarding shareholders, taking advantage of accretive growth opportunities and maintaining a strong balance sheet. We view this approach as the most appropriate to serve the long-term interests of our shareholders when considering the inherent cyclicality of our industry and future capital expenditures dictated by fleet renewal requirements amidst an ever-changing environmental regulatory landscape. With this in mind, we declared one more special dividend while we ended the first quarter of the year with a loan-to-value ratio of approximately 40%, a level for which we view very sustainable through any market cycle. In addition, the actions we have taken to grow our fleet substantially over the past three years with quality assets have strengthened our financial position, which has put Synergy in a prime position to benefit from a healthy freight market as the KPI segment enjoys the best demand and supply fundamentals in a drivable space. As a result, we expect to generate significant cash flows that will facilitate further shareholder value creation moving forward. That concludes our remarks and I would like now to turn the call over to the operator to answer any questions you may have.

Operator, please take the call. Thank you.

Now we're going to take our first question. And it comes from the line of Tate Sullivan from Maxim Group.

Your line is open. Please ask your question.

Great. Good day. Yeah, great comments and great sequential increase in the special dividend too. And if I may start on the forward hedging strategy with 2Q looking like another quarter over quarter increase in the time chart or equivalent rate with what you've done so far. Have you seen stable FSAs for the second half of 2024? And can you not comment on what you're seeing or what your activity has been so far for 3Q?

Well, good morning, Tate. Great to hear from you. The thing is that the FSA from time to time is moving completely irrational and doesn't reflect the real underlying value of the freight rates. So from time to time, we're seeing spikes in the FSAs. And when we see these spikes, you know, right now we have fixed, uh, 50%, a third of our fleet actually for the second half at around $30,000 a day. So whenever we see those spikes, we are there and we're ready. And we usually take advantage of those opportunities and we'll fix. So we were pretty much the same levels of the BCI for Q1. We expect to be above the BCI Q2 and, you know, as long as we generate and secure a very hefty profit for the second half of the year, I believe, you know, it doesn't really matter whether you're a bit above or a bit below the BCI. But the most important thing is that we have a very dynamic strategy. So whenever we see that, we monitor very carefully. We just take advantage of the spikes and we move on. It's as simple as that.

And then, I mean, it seems like quite good visibility going into 2025 for I mean, given the net cape size growth you mentioned of 1% in 25 and good ton mile growth. And there have been some other shipping companies after the close yesterday and this morning talking about more scrapping in 25. Is that going to take place in the cape size market too? And have you already seen that?

Well, the cape size segment has the lowest order book of the last 20 plus years. We have seen some pickup in new building ordering the last six months. But this has not happened in the Cape size segment. Cape size segment ordering has been quite subdued and we don't really expect, due to the very big price differential between the second hand and the new building, we don't really anticipate any immediate. And even if it does, there are no slots available before 27 or even 28. So I don't really expect any additional Cape sizes to be ordered or delivered. anytime soon, and that is going to help the market a lot, given the fact that two miles are doing very well. There are always geopolitical incidents happening that are most of the time beneficial to the trade, not so beneficial for the humanity, but beneficial for the trade. And I think that it's going to drive a sustainable profit stream that is going to deliver good returns to our shareholders. So that's all I can say. As we have pledged so many times, when the revenues and the cash flow is good, we always take care of our shareholders and we give back. So with a higher degree of certainty of the cash flow stream, we will continue rewarding our shareholders to the best of our capacity.

And just one follow-up is, are there, certainly not your fleet, but are there other cape-sized ships in the market that are still transporting cargo that are greater than 20 years older? And just can you comment on the scrapping activities?

I will give a parallel example is the one of the tankers. When the tankers spiked a couple of years ago after the invasion of Russia into Ukraine, even older ships built in 2004, 5, 6 years we're actually trading at a significantly six-digit freight rate level. So when the market is good and there is not availability of supply of vessels, even the older ships trade quite well. So I'm aware of certain fixtures right now for 20-year-old vessels, older than 20-year-old vessels, that are in the region of $25,000, $23,000 to $25,000 or so. I mean, even at the older vessels, they're trading quite good, and they believe that if the market demands additional ships, you're not going to find them in buildings because they're not enough. Great.

Well, thank you very much. We look forward to talking more. Thanks. Thank you, Tate. We'll talk to you soon.

Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question.

And the question comes to the line of Liam Burke from BRally Financial. Your line is open. Please ask your question.

Yes. Hello, Stamatis. Hi, Stavros. How are you? Hello, Liam. Good morning. Good morning. Stamatis, you talked about the macro. You went through the iron ore and bauxite. Is coal going to be a positive for you for the balance of 2024?

Yes, it is, and we're seeing very strong volumes, which is a result of two main factors. Number one, you have higher energy needs in Southeast Asia, as well as India, which relies heavily on coal. You have a mega delivery of coal-fired power plants in Southeast Asia, again, and India, which is going to be driving their energy capacity and needs for the next five years. brand new factories, so we don't really see coal slowing down. What has really helped the coal trade a lot, and we're seeing that on our own fleet, is the fact that the Red Sea passages are now scarce. So all the coal going from Australia to Europe, and we've had a lot of these trades, it now has to go around the Cape of Good Hope, so it doesn't, you know, cut road inside the Mediterranean Sea. As you can imagine, that increases the ton mile. So demand by itself will continue to be strong. We don't see demand slowing down. And ton mile effect due to geopolitics is actually helping the market a lot. So it isn't going anywhere. New factories are being built that are cleaner and better. And, you know, developing world and so fast accelerating growth economies like India, they need a lot of energy. Where are you going to find it? You cannot build nuclear plants in five years or you cannot put like windmills all over the place, you need energy. You need electricity. And coal is the most abundant and cheapest form for electricity to happen. And I think that we will see that going on for the foreseeable future.

Great. And I should know this, but you gave guidance or your partial guidance for your fixtures for the second half of the year. Do you have any dry docking scheduled in the second half that would affect utilization rates?

We have a couple of ships, so it's not really a big dry dock program for the second half of the year. It's a couple of ships which will likely finish very quickly. We are in discussions with the charters of these ships to install energy saving devices and paints and all that. That is going to require a little bit additional time and a little bit additional cost that we are now discussing how to split it. But this is not going to be a substantial effect on our P&L for the second half of the year, which if it continues like this, it's going to be, you know, pretty much as expected.

Got it. And I know this sounds kind of nitpicking, but DVOE was slightly up, both sequentially and year over year. Is that just a normal cost of operations?

That's a great question, and I think I should address it right now for good. From the public shipping driver companies, Synergy has the lowest book value per dead weight, which means that we have bought our ships cheaper than the majority of the other companies, right? Sometimes the ships require additional maintenance. So we have paid less for the ships, but we need a bit more expenses to maintain them better. So it's not a matter of It's not a matter of, how do you say, inflation or things like that. On top of that, the regulations in the regulatory environment in dry bank space, especially in CAPEs that we call Australia a lot and now China, has become much more demanding, which means that you cannot really cut down on crew costs, which is the biggest component of direct operating expenses. And that means that we need to invest on seafarers that have the higher quality to avoid delays, to avoid detentions, to avoid losing operational days. So that's something that as a company we examine and we assess on a weekly basis when we discuss about the fleet. So the saving of buying our ships cheaper is much, much higher than the actual incremental operating expenses cost. which is nothing compared to how much money we have saved for the shareholders in cost, and how much more money we generate on revenues from additional units that we're buying.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Dear participants, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question over the phone, please press star 11 on your telephone keypad. Now we're going to take our first question. And it comes from the line of Christopher Bartheskaya from Arctic Securities. Your line is open. Please ask your question.

Hello, Senator Tim. How are you? Hello. Good afternoon.

We're great. Thank you. Nice to hear from you. Nice to hear you as well. And thank you for the good presentation. And especially really good quarter, both operationally and I mean, it's beat across all parameters. I was wondering, could you please elaborate a bit on distribution? You're now paying 30% of EPS. Is this sort of a new normal, or how should we think about distributions going forward? I mean, you're still trading quite significantly below NIV, so how do you weigh that up against Starbucks?

Well, as you know, we have been rewarding our shareholders quite significantly over the last two years that we have initiated the dividend schedule. We discontinued that for a temporary period of time last year due to bad market conditions when we saw the CAPE rates going down to $3,000 a day. We are conservative people. The more we fix and the more certain we feel about the cash flow, the more our appetite is to reward our shareholders more and more. So we started with $0.10 in Q1. We're now doing $0.15 in Q2. We hope that if the market allows, we will continue to expand the dividend payout as much as possible. We don't have any imminent acquisition opportunities, and the ones that we have agreed to acquire have already been pretty much funded. So we don't have any serious outflows here and there. Having said that, we will, of course, need to have a good cash cushion to avoid any mishaps in the market. As you know, it's a very volatile trade. And we will continue our generosity to reward our shareholders because we want to and we feel obliged to providing the best possible returns for the shareholders of Synergy.

Great. Great. Got it.

And in terms of... refinancing and also with regards to the acquisition it's quite low and attractive margin you're getting now 255 so I guess you're that should have a positive effect also in terms of net financials but sort of into Q2 and And maybe Q3, how's the cash effect in terms of these refinancing?

Well, we expect for the refinancing, we expect basically to minimize, basically nullify the equity component in the acquisition of the ship, of the ICON ship. So basically it's like we're buying here with no more equity. And then there's a small equity injection that we need to do for the newer ship that we have agreed to acquire during this quarter, which is around, I don't know, around $6 million. On top of that, we have already paid the balance. We'll be covered by debt. So we don't expect significant outflows to cover the capital for the acquisition of these two ships. And as Tamati said, as the market stabilizes and we see that there are more opportunities for long-term fixed rate fixture at good rates, dividend will go up.

Right.

And to ask a last question from me with regards to the market, what are you seeing sort of as a ton-mile effect or booster going into Q3 and Q4? Is it still sort of healthy volumes from Brazil, or do you see any other sort of volumes that are driving this market forward?

Well, as a benchmark, 2023 last year was a very strong year. If we manage to have the same volumes in 2024, that's also going to be awesome, considering the fact that we have the Red Sea passage closure that has decreased the amount of supply of ships in the water. And that is going to escalate even more, because the longer the distances, the more the backlog of required supply that you're going to need later in the year. Of course, geopolitics are favorable for the industry, or sometimes they're not. I mean, you know, we saw a certain period in the beginning of 2023, if you remember, that all the locked supply was unwound in the sea and there were no delays. So we may see that as well. Overall, I believe that the demand-supply fundamentals are very favorable. But due to all these aberrations in supply, we might see, you know, swings, either on the high side or on the low side.

So that's the name of the game when you're trading on the capes. Perfect. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Daron, for the questions for today, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect. Speakers, please stand by.

Thank you, Nadia. Thank you. you Bye. Bye.

Thank you.

Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Synergy Maritime Holdings Corp conference call on the first quarter ended March 31st, 2024 financial results. We have with us Mr. Stamatis Tsantanis, Chairman and CEO, and Mr. Stavros Giftakis, Chief Financial Officer of Synergy Maritime Holdings Corp. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. There will be the question and answer session, at which time, if you would like to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone keypad. and you will then hear an automatic message advising your hand is raised. Please be advised that this conference call is being recorded today, Wednesday, May 15th, 2024. The archived webcast of the conference call will soon be made available on the Synergy website, www.synergymaritime.com, under the webcast and presentations sections under the investor relations page. Many of the remarks today contain forward-looking statements based on the current expectations. Actual results may differ materially from the results projected from those forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning factors that can cause the actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements is contained in the first quarter ended March 31st, 2024 earnings release, which is available on the Synergy website again, www.synergymaritime.com. I would now like to turn the conference over to one of your speakers today, the chairman and CEO of the company, Mr. Stamatis Tsantanis.

Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Operator.

Hello, I would like to welcome everyone to our conference call. Today we are presenting the financial results for the first quarter of 2024 and an update of our recent corporate developments. I am pleased to report that in a three-month period that ended on March 31, 2024, Synergy achieved record profitability, generating a net income of approximately $10 million in the usual weakest quarter of the year for the Cape Size segment. After a volatile 2023, in 2024 has started very strongly for the dry bullock market with the Baltic Cape Size Index staging its best first quarter performance in more than 10 years. Synergy was optimally positioned to take advantage of this positive market environment, leading to its best-performing first quarter on record. Our fleet produced net revenues of $38.3 million versus $18 million in the same period last year, more than double, corresponding to an average time chart equivalent rate of more than $24,000 per day, roughly in line with the current average BCI. The improved terms achieved on rechartering our vessels over the past quarters are effective hedging activities, and the high-specification vessels comprising our fleet have proven to be important drivers of our positive commercial performance and form important pillars of our long-term corporate strategy. Looking towards the second quarter of 2024 and based on the current FFA levels, we expect our daily TCE to be equal to about $26,400 per day, likely outperforming the capesize market by a wide margin. Beyond that, for the second half of the year, we have converted about one-third of our ownership days at a fixed daily rate of approximately $30,000 per day. As a general principle, during the currently healthy market conditions, we are keen to secure attractive fixed daily rates that can generate high free cash flow and solid retention capital, and we remain vigilant in that respect. In light of our strong performance and consistent with our commitment to rewarding our shareholders, our Board of Directors has authorized another special dividend of 12.5 cents for the quarter, in addition to a regular quarterly dividend of 2.5 cents. for a total quarterly dividend of 15 cents per share. As the year progresses and we gain more visibility on market conditions, we will be evaluating the best options to further increase capital returns to our shareholders. We view this as an important priority for Synergy and to this effect we have declared $1.60 of dividends cash dividends per share, or approximately $30 million since the initiation of our policy in 2022. Given the strong CapeSize outlook, we are optimistic that Synergy is well positioned to continue executing on our clear corporate strategy, which entails rewarding our shareholders generously while growing and renewing our fleet. Now turning to efforts to grow our fleet, since the beginning of the year we have agreed to acquire two more Japanese Cape size vessels built in 2013 and 2012. Specifically, the 2013 built Icon ship will be delivered to us promptly and the 2012 built to be named Cape size vessel is expected to be delivered to us between July and October this year. The combined acquisition cost of $69.3 million will be funded through cash on hand and debt. As an indication of the good timing of these transactions, the current combined market value of these two vessels has appreciated by more than 10%. Before I pass the floor to Stavros, our CFO, for his review of our financials. I would like to add that I am very pleased to see Synergy operating in a balanced manner within our stated business objectives and I view this quarter's strong financial performance as a vindication of our long-term corporate strategy. Thank you, Stomati. I would like to welcome everyone from my side as well to our first earnings call for 2024. Let us start by reviewing the main highlights of our financial statements for the period. We had another great quarter while we achieved a record first quarter profitability, as strong Cape-sized freight rates continued dominating the market. Our net revenue was equal to $38.3 million, more than double compared to the respective period last year, while our time-charter equivalent reached $24,100, very close to the average BCI for the quarter. Our adjusted EBITDA rose to $23.2 million during the first quarter, almost five-fold from the respective figure of last year. Our net income was $10.2 million compared to a net loss of $4.2 million last year, which translates to an ETS of $0.50. Moving on to our balance sheet, I am pleased to say that our cash position remained strong and almost intact in the first quarter of 2024, standing at 24.2 million or approximately 1.4 million per vessel. This was achieved despite consistent dividend payments, almost 8 million advances for the announced vessel acquisitions and a regular debt repayment. With regard to debt outstanding, This stood at $223 million at the end of the first quarter, translating to a modest loan-to-value ratio of approximately 40%. Finally, total shareholders' equity amounted to $241 million as of March 31, 2024. Let's now delve into the refinancing activities we completed in the first quarter. We agreed with one of our close lending partners to enter into three separate sale and leaseback agreements of $58.3 million in aggregate to refinance ELA ship and Patriot ship and to partly finance the acquisition of ICON ship. Under these agreements, the vessels will be sold and subsequently leased back on a bare-bottom basis for a five-year term starting from the delivery date of each vessel. Synergy will retain continuous options to repurchase the vessels at predetermined prices throughout the bare boat charter period. Upon the completion of the bare-board term, Synergy has an obligation to purchase the vessels for an aggregate amount of approximately $31.5 million. Its financing will bear interest of three-month term SOFR plus 2.55% per annum, representing a sizable reduction of approximately 120 basis points compared to the rates of the refinanced agreements. In aggregate, for the three vessels, the financing will amortize over 20 consecutive quarterly installments, averaging approximately 1.3 million per quarter. At the same time, we are in advanced discussions with potential financiers to partially finance the acquisition of our second capsized vessel, securing favorable terms for synergy and minimizing the impact on our liquidity for the completion of this acquisition. The new financings and refinancings are expected to minimally affect Synergy's loan-to-value, kept at a modest 43% based on the current market value of our fleet and in line with our financing strategy. It is worth noting that Synergy does not have any balloon payment due until the second quarter of 2025. Considering our proactive hedging activities, with several index-linked charters having been converted to fixed, as discussed earlier by Stamati, combined with our prudent financing strategy, we expect consistency on the profitability and liquidity fronts in the next quarter. This can enable us to continue delivering value to our shareholders and rewarding their investment. This concludes my review. I will now turn the call back to Stamatis, who will discuss the market and industry fundamentals. Stamati? Thank you, Stavros. For the first quarter of 2024, the Cape size market remained at elevated levels in continuation of the strong market conditions seen in the fourth quarter of the previous year. The strong start runs contrary to the usual seasonality and was driven by increased on-mile demand during a time when the supply of ships has been restricted, both due to the low new building ordering in the previous years and restricted traffic through Panama and Suez canals. Brazilian iron ore exports rose more than 10% compared to last quarter as Vale managed its highest export rate since 2019. China's port iron ore stockpiles reached a low point in 2023, driving demand for imports, restocking basically, and leading to an increase of about 7.2% year on year in 2024. Additionally, coal imports rose by around 13% during a period of low domestic production. For the current year, China steel production is expected to remain at high levels seen in 2023, with demand driven mainly by manufacturing, infrastructure and exports amidst a continuing weak real estate market. Outside China, steel production in the rest of the world has been particularly strong over the past six months, lending support to iron ore and capesize demand, a trend that is expected to continue during the current year. Similarly, Indian coal-generated electricity reached record high levels in the first quarter, building on a positive trend playing out over the past few years. Moving on to bauxite. That has had a substantial effect in complementing iron ore cargos for cape-sized vessels. Projections for aluminum demand are generally supportive for the next year due to healthy manufacturing trends globally, while longer-term aluminum is also likely to play an important role in energy transition. Volume growth is expected to be... 8% and 5% higher respectively in 2024 and 2025, with the ton-mile effect being even larger as the share of long-term Western African cargoes expands. Beyond the specific cage size demand, the general dry bulk market has also been supported by strong grain and coal cargo flows amidst the disruption of ship traffic seen both in Panama and Suez Canals, the Red Sea. This has had a positive psychological effect on our market as well, on top of the marginal improvement in actual market balance. Overall, 2024 ton-mile demand growth for the Cape-sized cargoes is expected to be about 3-4% higher, and given the current momentum, demand is expected to rise in 2025 with projected ton-mile growth by at least 2.5%. Turning on to vessel supply, the order book for Cape-sized vessels is at one of the lowest points seen in more than 20 years. Overall, net Cape-sized fleet growth is expected to be around 1.5% in 2024 and 1% in 2025, very low, which is considerably lower than the respective 10-mile demand growth figures. This is already reflected in the second-hand and new building vessel prices that have risen steadily since last year, as well as the healthy time chatter market rates that the chatterers are willing to pay. Before I conclude, I just want to note that we are of course aware of George Economos' investment in Synergy and his subsequent complaint against the company and its board of directors. At Synergy, our priority is executing our strategy and creating value for our shareholders. Indeed, as demonstrated by our results today, the actions we are taking have us well positioned to capture opportunities and reward shareholders both today and in the long term. Our board and management team will continue taking actions that we determine to be in the best interest of our company and our shareholders. To that end, we are addressing Mr Economo's complaint as appropriately. That said, we are here today to talk about our financial results and our strategies, and that's it. To close today's call, we want to emphasise our aim to balance our strategic objectives of rewarding shareholders, taking advantage of accretive growth opportunities and maintaining a strong balance sheet. We view this approach as the most appropriate to serve the long-term interests of our shareholders when considering the inherent cyclicality of our industry and future capital expenditures dictated by fleet renewal requirements amidst an ever-changing environmental regulatory landscape. With this in mind, we declared one more special dividend while we ended the first quarter of the year with a loan-to-value ratio of approximately 40%, a level for which we view very sustainable through any market cycle. In addition, the actions we have taken to grow our fleet substantially over the past three years with quality assets have strengthened our financial position, which has put Synergy in a prime position to benefit from a healthy freight market as the capeside segment enjoys the best demand and supply fundamentals in a drivable space. As a result, we expect to generate significant cash flows that will facilitate further shareholder value creation moving forward. That concludes our remarks and I would like now to turn the call over to the operator to answer any questions you may have.

Operator, please take the call. Thank you.

Now we're going to take our first question. And it comes from the line of Tate Sullivan from Maxim Group.

Your line is open. Please ask your question.

Great. Good day, Anand. Yeah, great comments and great sequential increase in the special dividend too. And if I may start on the forward hedging strategy with 2Q looking like another quarter over quarter increase in the time chart or equivalent rate with what you've done so far. Have you seen stable FSAs for the second half of 2024? And can you not comment on what you're seeing or what your activity has been so far for 3Q?

Well, good morning, Tate. Great to hear from you. The thing is that the FSA from time to time is moving completely irrational and doesn't reflect the real underlying value of the freight rates. So from time to time, we're seeing spikes in the FSAs. And when we see these spikes, you know, right now we have fixed, uh, 50%, a third of our fleet actually for the second half at around $30,000 a day. So whenever we see those spikes, we are there and we're ready. And we usually take advantage of those opportunities and we fix. So we were pretty much the same levels of the BCI for Q1. We expect to be above the BCI Q2 and, you know, as long as we generate and secure a very hefty profit for the second half of the year, I believe it doesn't really matter whether you're a bit above or a bit below the BCI. But the most important thing is that we have a very dynamic strategy. So whenever we see that, we monitor very carefully. We just take advantage of the spikes and we move on. It's as simple as that.

And then, I mean, it seems like quite good visibility going into 2025, right? I mean, given the net cape size growth you mentioned of 1% in 25 and good ton mile growth. And there have been some other shipping companies after the close yesterday and this morning talking about more scrapping in 25. Is that going to take place in the cape size market too? And have you already seen that?

Well, the cape size segment has the lowest order book of the last 20 plus years. We have seen some pickup in new building ordering the last six months. but this has not happened in the Cape size segment. Cape size segment ordering has been quite subdued and we don't really expect due to the very big price differential between the second hand and the new building, we don't really anticipate any immediate. And even if it does, there are no slots available before 27 or even 28. So I don't really expect any additional Cape sizes to be ordered or delivered. anytime soon, and that is going to help the market a lot, given the fact that two miles are doing very well. There are always geopolitical incidents happening that are most of the time beneficial to the trade, not so beneficial for the humanity, but beneficial for the trade. And I think that it's going to drive a sustainable profit that is going to deliver good returns to our shareholders. So that's all I can say. And as we have pledged so many times, when the revenues and the cash flow is good, we always take care of our shareholders and we give back. So with a higher degree of certainty of the cash flow stream, we will continue rewarding our shareholders to the best of our capacity.

Just one follow-up is, are there, certainly not your fleet, but are there other cape-sized ships in the market that are still transporting cargo that are greater than 20 years old? And just can you comment on the scrapping activities?

I will give a parallel example is the one of the tankers. When the tankers spiked a couple of years ago after the invasion of Russia into Ukraine, even older ships built in 2004, 5, 6 years we're actually trading at significantly six-digit freight rate level. So when the market is good and there is not availability of supply of vessels, even the older ships trade quite well. So I'm aware of certain fixtures right now for 20-year-old vessels, older than 20-year-old vessels, that are in the region of $25,000, $23,000 to $25,000. It's Quite good. I mean, even at the older vessels, they're trading quite good. And I believe that if the market demands additional ships, you're not going to find them in buildings because they're not enough.

Great. Well, thank you very much. We look forward to talking more. Thanks. Thank you, Tate. We'll talk to you soon.

Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question.

And the question comes to the line of Liam Burke from BRally Financial. Your line is open. Please ask your question.

Yes. Hello, Stamatis. Hi, Stavros. How are you? Hello, Liam. Good morning. Good morning. Stamatis, you talked about the macro. You went through the iron ore and bauxite. Is coal going to be a positive for you for the balance of 2024?

Yes, it is, and we're seeing very strong volumes, which is a result of two main factors. Number one, you have higher energy needs in Southeast Asia, as well as India, which relies heavily on coal. You have a mega delivery of coal-fired power plants in Southeast Asia, again, and India, which is going to be driving their energy capacity and needs for the next five years. brand new factories, so we don't really see coal slowing down. What has really helped the coal trade a lot, and we're seeing that on our own fleet, is the fact that the Red Sea passages are now scarce. So all the coal going from Australia to Europe, and we've had a lot of these trades, it now has to go around the Cape of Good Hope, so it doesn't cut road inside the Mediterranean Sea. As you can imagine, that increases the ton mile. So demand by itself will continue to be strong. We don't see demand slowing down. And ton mile effect due to geopolitics is actually helping the market a lot. So it isn't going anywhere. New factories are being built that are cleaner and better. And, you know, developing world and so fast accelerating growth economies like India, they need a lot of energy. Where are you going to find it? You cannot build nuclear plants in five years or you cannot put like windmills all over the place, you need energy. You need electricity. And coal is the most abundant and cheapest form for electricity to happen. And I think that we will see that going on for the foreseeable future.

Great. And I should know this, but you gave guidance or your partial guidance for your fixtures for the second half of the year. Do you have any dry docking scheduled in the second half that would affect utilization rates?

We have a couple of ships, so it's not really a big dry dock program for the second half of the year. It's a couple of ships which will likely finish very quickly. We are in discussions with the charters of these ships to install energy saving devices and paints and all that. That is going to require a little bit additional time and a little bit additional cost that we are now discussing how to split it. But this is not going to be a substantial effect on our P&L for the second half of the year, which if it continues like this, it's going to be, you know, pretty much as expected.

Got it. And I know this sounds kind of nitpicking, but DVOE was slightly up, both sequentially and year over year. Is that just a normal cost of operations?

That's a great question, and I think I should address it right now for good. From the public shipping driver companies, Synergy has the lowest book value per dead weight, which means that we have bought our ships cheaper than the majority of the other companies, right? Sometimes the ships require additional maintenance. So we have paid less for the ships, but we need a bit more expenses to maintain them better. So it's not a matter of You know, it's not a matter of, how do you say, of any inflation or things like that. On top of that, the regulations in the regulatory environment in dry bark space, especially on capes, that we call Australia a lot and now China, has become much more demanding, which means that you cannot really cut down on crew costs, which is the biggest component of direct operating expenses. And that means that we need to invest on seafarers that have the higher quality to avoid delays, to avoid detentions, to avoid losing operational days. So that's something that as a company we examine and we assess on a weekly basis when we discuss about the fleet. So the saving of buying our ships cheaper is much, much higher than the actual incremental operating expenses cost. which is nothing compared to how much money we have saved for the shareholders in cost, and how much more money we generate from revenues from additional units that we're buying.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Dear participants, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question over the phone, please press star 11 on your telephone keypad. Now we're going to take our first question. And it comes from the line of Christopher Bartheskaya from Arctic Securities. Your line is open. Please ask your question.

Hello, Senator Tim. How are you? Hello. Good afternoon. We're great.

Thank you. Nice to hear from you. Nice to hear you as well. And thank you for the good presentation. And especially really good quarter, both operationally and I mean, it's beat across all parameters. I was wondering, could you please elaborate a bit on distribution? You're now paying 30% of EPS. Is this sort of a new normal, or how should we think about distributions going forward? I mean, you're still trading quite significantly below NAV, so how do you weigh that up against Fibrex?

Well, as you know, we have been rewarding our shareholders quite significantly over the last two years that we have initiated the dividend schedule. We discontinued that for a temporary period of time last year due to bad market conditions when we saw the CAPE rates going down to $3,000 a day. We are conservative people. The more we fix and the more certain we feel about the cash flow, the more our appetite is to reward our shareholders more and more. So we started with $0.10 in Q1. We're now doing $0.15 in Q2. We hope that if the market allows, we will continue to expand the dividend payout as much as possible. We don't have any imminent acquisition opportunities, and the ones that we have agreed to acquire have already been pretty much funded. So we don't have any serious outflows here and there. Having said that, we will of course need to have a good cash cushion to avoid any mishaps in the market. As you know, it's a very volatile trade. And we will continue our generosity to reward our shareholders because we want to and we feel obliged to providing the best possible returns for the shareholders of Synergy.

Great, great. Got it.

And in terms of the refinancing and also with regards to the acquisition it's quite low and attractive margin you're getting now 255 so I guess you're that should have a positive effect also in terms of net financials but sort of into Q2 and And maybe Q3, how's the cash effect in terms of these refinancing?

Well, we expect for the refinancing, we expect basically to minimize, basically nullify the equity component in the acquisition of the ship, of the ICON ship. So basically it's like we're buying here with no more equity. And then there's a small equity injection that we need to do for the newer ship that we have agreed to acquire during this quarter, which is around, I don't know, around $6 million. On top of that, we have already paid the balance. We'll be covered by debt. So we don't expect significant outflows to cover the capital for the acquisition of these two ships. And as Tamati said, as the market stabilizes and we see that there are more opportunities for long-term fixed rate fixture at good rates, dividend will go up.

Right.

And to ask a last question from me with regards to the market, what are you seeing sort of as a of the effect or booster going into Q3 and Q4? Is it still sort of healthy volumes from Brazil, or do you see any other sort of volumes that are driving this market forward?

Well, as a benchmark, 2023 last year was a very strong year. If we manage to have the same volumes in 2024, that's also going to be awesome, considering the fact that we have the Red Sea passage closure that has decreased the amount of supply of ships in the water. And that is going to escalate even more, because the longer the distances, the more the backlog of required supply that you're going to need later in the year. Of course, geopolitics are favorable for the industry, or sometimes they're not. I mean, you know, we saw a certain period in the beginning of 2023, if you remember, that all the locked supply was unwound in the sea and there were no delays. So we may see that as well. Overall, I believe that the demand-supply fundamentals are very favorable. But due to all these aberrations in supply, we might see, you know, swings, either on the high side or on the low side. So that's the name of the game when you're trading on the capes.

Perfect. Thanks a lot. Thank you.