Danaos Corporation

Good day and welcome to the Denauss Corporation conference call to discuss the financial results for the three months ended September 30th, 2024. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. Hosting the call today is Dr. John Kustas, Chief Executive Officer of Denauss Corporation and Mr. Vangelos Hatice, Chief Financial Officer of Denauss Corporation. Dr. Koustas and Mr. Hatice will be making some introductory comments, and then we will open the call to a question and answer session. You may begin.

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 charter equivalent revenues and time charter 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. Now, let me 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 all for joining today's call to discuss our results for third quarter 24. The container market remained very strong in the third quarter of 2024, allowing us to add over 300 million to our contracted charter backlog, which presently stands at 3.3 billion. Importantly, all 14 of our new buildings on order are fixed for five years, except for two that are fixed for two years. We have excellent earnings visibility, as we have covered 100% of our container vessel fleet operating days for 2024, 94% for 2025, and 73% for 2026. The dry bulk market has been uncharacteristically soft lately, which can be attributed to disruption of seasonal patterns throughout the year, as well as a decrease in Chinese steel production. Our dry bulk fleet performed reasonably well during the quarter and we're expecting freight rates to gradually improve as we move into 2025. Due to the certainty provided by the chart of backlog in our container segment, the analysis insulated from the unstable and unpredictable nature of the current global backdrop. The recent U.S. presidential election has introduced new uncertainty about future policymaking and its effect in the shipping market. Most notably, President Trump has openly declared his intention to implement or increase trade tariffs that have the potential to decrease container movements or at least reshuffle trade lanes. Additionally, it's likely that energy transition initiatives will take place at a slower rate and we don't know to what extent existing IMO initiatives will be supported by the new administration. Danaos remains in a fortunate and enviable position. In addition to our chart of coverage, our balance sheet is a significant strength. I'm proud of the efforts we have undertaken, efforts that have been acknowledged by Moody's, who upgraded Danaos to be A1. Together with the S&P credit rating at BB+, Danaos now holds the highest grade assigned to a pure clay shipping company. Our creditworthiness will allow us to explore fully the U.S. bond market, creating opportunity to raise competitively priced capital to continue to pursue growth opportunities. Our continued strong financial performance and accompanying strengthening of our balance sheet has enabled us to increase our quarterly dividend to $0.85 a share, in line with the commitment we have made to our shareholders. We're also continuing to return value through our share buyback program. We have now cumulatively bought back stock worth 123 million and have 77 million remaining under our authorized share repurchase program. We are continuing our efforts to increase the value of the company while remaining vigilant about geopolitical risks to ensure the long-term prosperity of Danaos for the benefit of our shareholders. With that, I'll hand the call back over to Evangelos, who will take you through the finances for the quarter. Evangelos?