Danaos Corporation

Good day and welcome to the Denao's Corporation conference call to discuss the financial results for the three months ended March 31st, 2024. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. Hosting the call today is Dr. John Kustas, Chief Executive Officer of Denao's Corporation and Mr. Evangelos Hatzis, Chief Financial Officer of Denao's Corporation. Dr. Kustas, And Mr. Hatzis will be making some introductory comments, and then we will open the call to a question and answer session.

Thank you, Operator, and good morning to everyone. And thank you for joining us today. Before we begin, I quickly want to remind everyone that management's remarks this morning may contain certain forward-looking statements and that actual results could differ materially from those projected today. These forward-looking statements are made as of today, and we undertake no obligation to update them. Factors that might affect future results are discussed in our filings with the SEC, and we encourage you to review the detailed safe harbor and risk factor disclosures. Please also note that where we feel appropriate, we will continue to refer to non-GAAP financial measures such as EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income, time-chartered equivalent revenues and time-chartered equivalent dollars per day to evaluate our business. Reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release and accompanying materials. With that, let me now turn the call over to Dr. John Koustas, who will provide the broad overview of the quarter.

John? Thank you, Evangelos. Good morning and thank you for joining today's call to discuss our results for first quarter of 2024. The container market continued to strengthen in the first quarter of 2024, a trend that has continued into the second quarter. Both charter and box rates are gaining momentum, and we have completed all necessary rechartering activity in excess of our internal forecasts. The renewed optimism in the market extends to the longer-term view of the charters who are making charter commitments on new building vessels with deliveries scheduled from 2025 through end of 2027. Following the recent placement of an order for an additional two 8,250 TEU vessels for 2027 delivery, our new building order book currently consists of 14 vessels totaling 108,000 TEU two of which have already been delivered to us. More importantly, we have now secured multi-year chartering agreements for all our vessels on order, while we have also extended charters of certain existing vessels. As a result of this chartering activity over the past three months, we have added $423 million to our contracted revenue backlog that today stands at $2.5 billion. with an average charter duration of 2.9 years. All the vessels in our new building order book are methanol ready, future proofing a portion of our fleet on green fuel usage. We have also arranged very conservative financing for the first eight new buildings at competitive rates to ensure that we're able to maintain a strong liquidity profile to support continued opportunistic fleet expansion. In our dry bulk vessel segment, we've added an additional cape size to our fleet, increasing our fleet to 10 vessels in total. We are continuing to explore ways to increase our exposure to this market. The dry bulk market has performed above expectations, and we are confident that an eventual Chinese recovery will drive the market higher. Our entry point into the dry bulk market is relatively low, and our break even is therefore easily achievable. Despite geopolitical uncertainties, most of the economies around the world are performing relatively well and are displaying no signs of recession. The biggest risk to our market outlook comes from trade hurdles that various countries are putting in place in the form of tariffs and trade restrictions on energy as well as manufactured goods. Despite the positive short-term impacts of these practices, We believe it will ultimately result in trade contraction in the longer term. In the meantime, our strategy has continued to result in consistent, solid results. We will continue to explore growth opportunities while ensuring the longevity of our investments for the benefit of our shareholders. With that, I'll hand the call over back to Evangelos, who will take you through the financials for the quarter. Evangelos.