Dynagas LNG Partners LP

Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to DynaGas LNG Partners conference call on the fourth quarter 2021 financial results. We have with us Mr. Tony Lauritsen, Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Michael Gregos, Chief Financial Officer of the company. At this time, all participants are in 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 the automated message advising your line is open. I must advise you that this conference is being recorded today. Please be reminded that the company announced its results with a press release that has been publicly distributed. At this time, I would like to remind everyone that in today's presentation and conference call, Dynagas LNG partners will be making forward-looking statements. These statements are within the meaning of the federal securities laws. This conference call and slide presentation of the webcast contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Safe Harbor Preservation Act, of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The statements in today's conference call that are not historical facts, including, among other things, the expected financial performance of Dynagas LNG Partners business, Dynagas LNG, the ability to pursue growth opportunities, Dynagas Partners LNG expectations or objectives regarding future and market charter rate expectations, and in particular, the effects of COVID-19 on the financial condition and operations of Dynagas Partners LNG and the LNG industry in general, may be forward-looking statements as such as defined in Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as amended. Matters discussed may be forward-looking statements which are based on current management expectations that involve risks and uncertainties that may result in such expectations not being realized. I kindly draw your attention to slide 2 of the webcast presentation, which has the full forward-looking statement, and the same statement was also included in the press release. Please take a moment to go through the whole statement and read it. And now I pass the floor to Mr. Lauritsen. Please go ahead, sir.

Morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us in our three-month and the 31st December 2021 earnings conference call. I'm joined by our CFO, Michael Greggos. We have issued a press release announcing our results for the said period. Certain non-GAAP measures will be discussed on this call. We have provided a description of those measures as well as a discussion of why we believe this information to be useful in our press release. Let's move on to slide three of the presentation. We are pleased to report the results for the three months ended 31st December 2021. All six LNG carriers in our fleet are operating under their respective long-term charters. The COVID-19 outbreak is still causing operational and logistical challenges for the industry. Despite this, we are pleased to report 100% utilization for our fleet for the fourth quarter of 2021. For the fourth quarter of 2021, we reported net income of 16.9 million, earnings per comment unit of 38 cents, adjusted net income of 11.4 million, adjusted earnings per common unit of 23 cents, and adjusted EBDA of 24.7 million. Our thoughts go out to everyone affected and suffering as a result of the crisis in Ukraine. We continue to closely monitor this ongoing situation including the implications of economic sanctions, trading and restrictions, and other considerations that may affect our business. The partnership is in compliance with all applicable U.S. and EU sanctions. It is our understanding that the current U.S. and EU sanctions regime have exempted certain LNG shipping operations and do not materially affect the business operations or financial conditions of the partnership. Also, the partnership's counterparty are currently performing their obligations under their respective time charters in compliance with applicable U.S. and E.U. rules and regulations. Sanctions legislation is changing rapidly, and the partnership is continuously monitoring the ongoing situation. I will now turn the presentation over to Michael, who will provide you with further comments to the financial results. Thank you, Tony.

Turning to slide four, our quarter results continue to reflect our stable contractually-based operating model as our fleet continues to operate with 100 percent utilization. Adjusted net income for the quarter increased by 6.5% to $11.4 million compared to the fourth quarter of 2020 due to decreased finance costs and slightly higher voyage revenues for the quarter. Our adjusted EBITDA amounted to $24.7 million, a 1.2% increase compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, and our adjusted EBITDA margin amounted to 69%. Since our debt refinancing in the fourth quarter of 2019, we embarked on a comprehensive deleveraging path, having repaid through the quarterly installments on our credit facility 108 million in debt, resulting in a decrease in our net leverage to 4.8 times from 6.6 times, an increase in book value of our equity of 21 percent, and a doubling of our profitability, with our profitability having stabilized at 23 cents earnings per common unit for the fourth quarter. Turning to slide five, As of end December, we had 567 million debt outstanding under one credit facility, all of which has been hedged with an interest rate swap for the life of the loan until its maturity in September 2024. For the full year 2021, we generated 97 million in EBITDA, 70 percent of which was utilized for debt service, 44 million in adjusted net income, and 80 million in operating cash flow. Looking forward, we anticipate that our profitability will be impacted by the third special surveys and dry dockings of the three steam turbine LNG carriers, Clean Energy, Amur River, and Ob River, which will take place in the first and second quarter of this year and which we expect will come in at a total cost of approximately $6.5 million. per vessel, including installation of their respective ballast water treatment systems and excluding the off-hire during the dry-dug period. Moving to slide six, in line with our strategy of using our contracted cash flow to reduce leverage for the quarter, we utilized 68 percent of our unlevered cash flow to service debt and interest payments. Excluding working capital changes, operating cash flow for the quarter was $21 million. After debt service payments and payments to preferred unit holders, we generated $5 million excluding working capital changes and payments required under our interest rate swap for the quarter. And our cash balance increased by about $5.7 million to $97 million. In this slide, we also show our fleet-wide cash flow break even per day per vessel versus our fleet contracted time charter rates for the quarter, which amounted to $63,600 per day per vessel. For the quarter, we had a per vessel fleet average cash break even per day after all operating GMA and debt service payments of $49,500 per day with our contracted fleet time charter rate being 1.28 times our fleet cash break-even levels, excluding preferred distributions. That wraps it up from my side. I will pass the presentation over to Tony. Thank you, Michael.