Costamare Inc.

Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Costamara, Inc. conference call on the first quarter 2024 financial results. We have with us Mr. Gregory Zicos, chief financial officer of the company. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question and answer session, at which time, if you wish to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. I must advise you that this conference is being recorded today, Friday, May 10, 2024. We would like to remind you that this conference call contains forward-looking statements. Please take a moment to read slide number two of the presentation, which contains the forward-looking statements. And I will now pass the floor to your speaker today, Mr. Zygos. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. During the first quarter of the year, the company generated net income of about 94 million. As of quarter end, liquidity was close to 1.1 billion. In the container ship sector, charter rates have seen significant improvement from the end of last year. Demolition has fallen to levels below what was experienced during the first quarter of 2023. Although cargo volumes have generally improved, Disruption in Red Sea is the main reason for the improved charter market. We have proactively secured deployment for 97% and 80% of our contingency fleet for 2024 and 2025, respectively, generating contracted revenues of $2.3 billion, with a remaining time-traded duration of 3.4 years. On the dry bulk side, as part of our strategy to renew the fleet and increase its average size, we have agreed to acquire two more cape-sized vessels and accept the delivery of one simpler-sized ship. In total, we have acquired five cape-sized vessels with an average age of about 12.5 years and disposed of a total of 10 smaller-sized ships with an average age of 14 years. Our own dry-bulk vessels continue to trade on a sport basis while the trading platform is commercially managing a fleet of 54 ships. As mentioned in the past, we have a long-term commitment to the dry-bulk sector which has been a strategic decision for us. Regarding Neptune MyTime leasing, the platform has been steadily growing, having concluded leasing transactions for 24 ships in total, on the back of a healthy pipeline extending over the coming quarters. Moving now to the slide presentation. On slide three, you can see our first quarter results. Netting up for the quarter was roughly 94 million, or 79 shares per share. Adjusted net income was about $75 million, or 63 cents per cent. Our liquidity stands at about $1.1 billion. Slide 4. On the container ship side, our revenue dates are fixed 97% for 24 and 80% for 25, while our contracted revenues are 2.3 billion, with a TU weight that remains in duration of 3.4 years. In parallel, we continue to charter all our dry bag vessels in the spot market, having entered into more than 30 charting agreements since our last earnings release. Slide 5. We do execute on our strategy to renew our fleet and increase its size. During the last quarters, we have acquired five Cape Sides and one Ultramax ship with an average age of 12 years, and we also have disposed of 10 smaller vessels with an average age of 14 years. Slide 6 shows in more detail the S&P activity since our last earnings release. Slide 5, regarding CBI, we have charted in 54 period vessels, with the majority of the fleet being on index-linked agreements. On our leasing platform, we have already invested around $120 million. Since inception, NML has financed 24 assets through sale and leaseback transactions, and has a very healthy pipeline going forward. Moving to slide eight, we do have roughly available $116 million for financing of personal acquisitions through hunting licenses. In addition, we continue to have a long uninterrupted dividend track record boosted by strong sponsor support. Moving to slide nine, our liquidity stands at about $1.1 billion. This liquidity gives us the ability to look for opportunities to grow the company on a healthy basis. Moving to slide 10. Charter rates in the contingency market have been rising lately across all segments, having benefited from the red seed disruption. The idle capacity remains at low levels at 0.6%. Moving to slide 11, the final slide. You can see the recent dry market trends in the spot and forward market. Charter rates remain volatile, however, trading higher than the first quarter of last year. The order book is at about 9% of the total fleet. With that, we conclude our presentation, and we can now take questions. Thank you. Operator, we can take questions now.

Thank you, sir. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. Again, that's star one to ask a question. Your first question comes from the line of Ben Nolan with Stifel. Please go ahead.