Costamare Inc.

Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Costamare, Inc. conference call on the second quarter 2024 financial results. We have with us Mr. Gregory Zekos, 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, Wednesday, July 31st, 2024. We'd 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 over to your speaker today, Mr. Zicos. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. During the second quarter of the year, the company generated an income of about $91 million. As of quarter end, liquidity was about $1.1 billion. In the container ship sector, continued vessel diversions around Africa in an early peak season with higher than expected cargo demand have resulted in charter aides remaining on an upward trajectory against the backdrop of short supply of proctonants. During the quarter, we chartered on a forward basis seven container ships for a minimum period of between two to three years. The new charter agreements are expected to generate incremental contracted revenues of above $220 million. Our fleet employment starts at 100% at 8% for 2024 and 2025 respectively, and total contracted revenues amount to $2.4 billion, with the remaining time for the duration of 3.5 years. On the dry park side, we are now progressing with our strategy to renew the old fleet and have concluded the sale of one 2011-built handy size and agreed the sale of one 2009-built Supra Max Vessel, while simultaneously acquiring two 2012-built cape-size ships. CBI, our dry-barred trading platform, is commercially managing a fleet of 54 ships, the majority of which are on index-linked chartering agreements. As mentioned in the past, we have a long-term commitment to the sector, which has been a strategic decision for us. Finally, regarding extra maritime leasing, the platform has been steadily growing, having currently funded 25 shipping assets for a total amount of approximately 285 million on the back of a healthy pipeline. Moving now to the slide presentation. On slide three, you can see our second quarter results. Net income for the quarter was about 91 million or 77 cents per share. Our liquidity was above 1.1 billion. Slide four. We have proceeded with a full redemption of our Series C preferred stock, resulting to annual cash flow savings of approximately $10.1 million. Slide 5. On the container ship side, we have chartered seven container ships with incremental contracted revenues of above $220 million. Our revenue days are fixed 100% for this year and 88% for 2025, while our contracted revenues are $2.4 billion, with a TEU-weighted remaining time-sharded duration of 3.5 years. In parallel, we continue to charter all our dry-bulk vessels in the spot market, having entered into more than 25 chartering agreements since our last earnings release. Slide 6. We have concluded the acquisition of two Cape-sized dry-bulk vessels, as well as the sale of one handy-sized dry-bulk ship. In addition, we have agreed to dispose of one more Supramax vessel. Slide 7. Regarding CBI, we have chartered in 54 period vessels where the majority of the fleet is being chartered on index-linked agreements. Our leasing platform has already an investment of about 123 million from our side. As of the date of this presentation, NML is financing 25 ships through sale and leaseback transactions and has a very healthy pipeline. Slide 8. We have refinanced the existing indebtedness of three drywall places without any increasing leverage. This deal was coupled with improvement of funding costs and extension of maturities. In addition, we have roughly available $116 million for financing of vessel acquisitions. Finally, we do continue to have a long uninterrupted dividend track record. Slide 9. Liquidity is above $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 increased across all segments since the beginning of the year, remaining stable the last couple of weeks. The continued injection of new building capacity remains, however, the principal threat of the market. Highly fleet remains at low levels of 0.6%. And last slide, on slide 11, you can see the recent dry bag market trends in the spot and forward market. The order book is at 9.4% of the total fleet. With that, we conclude our presentation and we can now take questions. Thank you. Operator, we can take questions now. Hello? Operator, can you hear us?

Yes, thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. 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 2. That's star 1 to ask a question, star 2 to remove it. We will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Our first question comes from Ben Nolan from Stifel. Please go ahead.