Danaos Corporation

Good day and welcome to the Denauss Corporation conference call to discuss the financial results for the three months ended September 30, 2025. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. Hosting the call today is Dr. John Kustos, Chief Executive Officer of Denauss Corporation, and Dr. Yvonne Glos, HOTC's Chief Financial Officer of Denauss Corporation. Dr. Koussas and Mr. Hatzis will be making some introductory comments, and then we will open the call to a question and answer session. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Yvon Glos Hatzis, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, operator, and good morning to everyone. 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 these 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. With that, let me now turn the call over to Dr. John Koustas, who will provide the broad overview of the quarter.

Thank you, Evangelos. Good morning, and thank you all for joining today's call to discuss our results for the third quarter of 2025. As we enter the final months of the year, the rating conditions remain broadly unchanged. The war in Ukraine continued with no end in sight, And while the conflict in the Middle East is in the process of resolution, transit through the Red Sea has not yet resumed, and liners are waiting for more permanent signs of stability to restart the transit. The recent de-escalation in trade and tariff tensions between the United States and China enabled trade to resume unhindered, while the redirection of Chinese exports to the EU and other countries kept trading at container traffic at an all-time high during the third quarter of the year. The charter market remains robust, and the idle fleet remains at an all-time low. Demand for midsize and larger vessels continues unabated, and we have secured new charters for vessels opening as far out as the beginning of 2028. Previewed slots for 2028 deliveries are becoming scarce, and new building prices continue to rise. We have selectively extended our new building program at below market prices, and we have already secured multi-year employment for these new orders. Following the IMO's one-year postponement of its net zero framework, we expect conventional fuels to remain prevalent in the medium term, even as the long-term decarbonization trajectory is unchanged. In relation to our new building program, we recently added six 1800 TU vessels to our order book with scheduled deliveries between 2027 and 2029 and have secured 10-year charters for four of these vessels with a contribution to our contracted revenue backlog of approximately 236 million. On the financing front, we recently completed a 500 million unsecured seven-year bond offering with a 6.85% coupon. This is one of the most competitively priced deals ever achieved in the shipping industry for an unsecured bond with such tenor and is a testament of our superior credit quality. We intend to use the proceed to redeem our 2028 300 million bond as well as prepaying for some smaller secured bank credit facilities. We have already arranged secure debt financing for the majority of our new building program, and our forecast balance sheet that has been solidified with the recent bond issuance considerably enhances our capacity to pursue accretive investment opportunities that can propel the growth of Danaos into the next level. Our solid performance has enabled us to continue to deliver strong, profitable performance, enhance our contract backlog, and fund investments to reduce the age of our fleet, and further cement Danao's leadership position in the container charter market. We also continue to opportunistically invest in the dry bulk cape size market segment, where we expect outsized returns due to supply constraints and ton-mile demand increase. Finally, I'm pleased to announce that we are increasing our quarterly dividend to 90 cents per share, consistent with our policy of yearly increases, while also striving to continue to build long-term value 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.

Thank you, John, and good morning again to everyone, and thanks to all of you for joining this call. I will briefly review the results for the quarter and we will then open up the call to Q&A. We are reporting adjusted EPS for the third quarter of 2025 of $6.75 per share or adjusted net income of $124.1 million compared to adjusted EPS of $6.5 per share or adjusted net income of $126.8 million for the third quarter of 2024. This 2.7 million decrease in adjusted net income between the two quarters is the combined result of a 6.1 million increase in total operating costs, mainly due to the increase in the average number of vessels in our fleet, and the 2.5 million decrease in dividend income, partially offset by a 4.5 million increase in operating revenues, a 1 million decrease in equity loss on investments, and a 0.4 million decrease in net finance expenses. As analyzed in our earnings release, the increase in our fleet produced 11.2 million of incremental operating revenues that was supplemented by an extra 1.8 million in higher operating revenues as a result of higher fleet utilization. Those were partially offset by a 4.3 million decrease in revenues of our container segment as a result of lower contracted charter rates between the two periods and the $4.2 million lower non-cash U.S. GAAP revenue recognition. Vessel operating expenses increased by $2.4 million to $52.3 million in the current quarter from $49.9 million in the third quarter of 2024, mainly as a result of the increase in the average number of vessels in our fleet, while our daily operating costs slightly increased to $6,927 per vessel per day for this quarter, compared to $6,860 per vessel per day for the corresponding third quarter of 2024. Our operating costs continue to remain among the most competitive in the industry. G&A expenses increased by 1.6 million to 12.6 million in the current quarter, compared to 11 million in the third quarter of 2024. Interest expense, excluding finance cost amortization, increased by 0.3 million to 7.7 million in the current quarter compared to 7.4 million in the third quarter of 2024. This increase is the combined result of a 0.9 million increase in interest expense due to an increase in average indebtedness of 121 million between the two periods, and that was partially offset by a reduction in the cost of debt service by approximately 74 basis points, mainly as a result of a decrease in software costs between the two periods. We also had a 0.6 million decrease in interest expense due to higher capitalized interest on vessels under construction between the two periods. At the same time, interest income came in at 3.8 million in the current quarter due to the increased average cash balances on our balance sheet, partially offset, of course, by declining interest rates. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 1.5%, or 2.7 million, to 181.6 million in the current quarter, from $178.9 million in the third quarter of 2024 for reasons that have already been outlined earlier on this call. We encourage you to review our updated investor presentation that is posted on our website, as well as subsequent events disclosures. Let me provide a few of the highlights. Since the date of our last earnings release, we have added $745 million to our contracted revenue backlog. As a result, our contracted charter backlog has considerably improved and now stands at $4.1 billion with a 4.3-year average charter duration, while contract coverage is already at 100% for this year, 95% for 2026, and at 71% for 2027 in terms of operating days, contracted operating days. Our investor presentation has analytical disclosure on our contracted charter book. As of September 30, 2025, our net debt stood at 165 million, and this translates to a net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio of 0.23 times, while 53 out of our 84 vessels are unencumbered and debt-free. This quarter, we have declared a dividend of $0.90 per share, which is an increase of approximately 6% versus the prior dividend. And we also continue to execute under our share repurchase program. And we currently have 86.4 million remaining authority to repurchase stock under our $300 million stock buyback program. Finally, as at the end of the third quarter of 2025, cash stood at $596 million, while total liquidity, including availability under our revolving credit facility and marketable securities, stood at $971 million, giving us ample flexibility to pursue accretive capital deployment opportunities. With that, I would like to thank you for listening to this first part of our call. Operator, we are now ready to open the call to Q&A.

We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question comes from Omar Nocta with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Hi, John Evangelos. Good afternoon. A couple of questions from me. Hi, Omar. Hi, John. Just a couple of questions. one on kind of the industry and then on to now specifically, you know, just first on the container shipping, you know, chartering activity we've been seeing, it's been a bit of a bumpy year in terms of, you know, lower trade and tariffs and, you know, box freight rates have gotten lower and there's kind of growing chatter perhaps of the Red Sea return, even though it's still very, very early and people are still cautious. But yet, despite all that, you're still seeing very high demand for charters on your existing ships, but then also despite you having said you wanted to step back from the new building market, it's been kind of difficult given the contracts being awarded. Wanted to just kind of get your sense in terms of what do you think is driving all of this kind of, I don't want to call it say a frenzy, but just a strong appetite on the part of liners looking for ships, whether it's what's on the water on a forward basis perhaps, but then also you know, looking for brand new ships that deliver in 28 and 29, just kind of that high volume of activity. What do you think is driving that? And can we expect that to persist as we get into 2026?

Well, Omar, it's difficult, let's say, to answer exactly what is happening. what we see is that there is this there was this let's say problem with tariffs but tariffs themselves have not changed the overall the world let's say production capacity and China i mean during this period didn't stop producing it's just that the goods were directed elsewhere and what is really interesting this time is that we see the dynamism in the market happening outside of the let's say the usual western areas i mean europe and the us the market is developing quite substantially all over the rest of the world. And that is why also demand for mid-size ships has been so robust, because that's really where the demand increase is coming. So, yeah, I cannot really say how strong 2026 is going to be, I mean, as far as we are concerned, practically even for 2027, we are mostly fixed. It's difficult really to make any prediction. And you see, we will, of course, have a better idea of where the market is heading after the canal is opening again, which We believe now that it will be maybe an event of the first half of the 26th although in that kind of area the disarmament of Hamas is not happening and I think this is really the most crucial question to ensure that this conflict is over.

Yeah. Thanks, John. Yeah, definitely a lot of moving pieces and it does sound like the trade has clearly gotten much more, uh, complex. Uh, and then maybe just kind of thinking about the now specifically, you know, the investment in the Cape side vessel you bought, um, that's your 11th ship. Um, you know, this, this, this one comes after you had bought the original 10 back in 23. what's maybe triggered this investment and then also why this age range and should we expect more of these types of investments going forward?

Of course, our idea was when we entered that kind of market to really grow it. As a percentage, the let's say, of our fleet, not in terms of, let's say, ship numbers, but at least, let's say, in terms of investment in value, all this dry bulk investment is less than 5% of our overall assets. So it's still really nothing, I mean, practically. And we definitely want to increase it. Uh, you know, for the time being is a new building front still, uh, these vessels do not make sense. So, uh, we're trying to expand selectively in the secondhand market, uh, and mainly, uh, trying to identify, uh, good quality vessels.

Okay. Uh, thank you. Thanks John. And then final one, just on, on the share repurchase program. You know, you have been since inception, I think, in 22, quite active with it. You're also, you know, active. What can we expect going forward, or what do you think about the buyback from here?

You know, we are continuing. We have not really stopped. It's just the pace has been kind of smaller. we still believe that our stock is greatly undervalued and we are continuing at a smaller pace, but we have not stopped.

Omar, we've seen the share buybacks in the past few weeks and we're still at it.

Okay. Awesome. Thanks, Evangelos. Thanks, John. And also congrats on the bond issue last month. I'll turn it over. Thank you.

Again, if you have a question, please press star, then 1. The next question comes from Clemon Mullins with Value Investors Edge. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, and thank you for taking my questions. Following up on Omar's question on the Cape Seas acquisition and your commentary on maybe wanting to expand your dry exposure, could you provide an update on how you view your investment in Starbuck? And secondly, is there any appetite to maybe expand into other segments such as Panamaxes or Supermaxes?

Well, as we said, you know, we are happy with our investment in Starbucks. We have actually increased that position when, you know, last spring when we saw a dip in prices. You know, we are continuing. We believe that there is room for appreciation. As far as the other segments, no, we are not looking into other segments, you know, at the time being.

Thanks for the call, that's helpful. And following up on the CAPES-A side of FLIT, could you provide some guidance on your Q4 fixtures to date?

We do not provide the guidance as to charter fixtures for the running quarter.

Anderson, makes sense. I'll turn it over. Thank you for taking my questions.

It appears we have no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the call back over to Dr. Koustas for any further comments or closing remarks.

Thank you all for joining this conference call and your continued interest in our story. Look forward to hosting you on our next earnings call. Have a nice day.