Diana Shipping inc.

Hello and welcome to the Diana Shipping Inc. first quarter 2023 conference call and webcast. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. You may press star one at any time to be placed into question queue. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Ed Nebb, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Ed.

Thank you, Kevin, and thanks to everyone who is joining us today for the Diana Shipping, Inc. 2023 First Quarter Conference Call. With us today to lead the call from management is Samira Mispaliu, Chief Executive Officer, who will introduce the other executives of the company and begin the presentation.

Thank you, Ed. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Diana Shipping, Inc.' 's first quarter 2023 earnings call. My name is Samira Mispaliou, the CEO of the company, and it is a great pleasure to have the opportunity to present to you today. As mentioned by Ed earlier, I'm joined by our esteemed team, Mr. Stacey Margaronis, President of Diana Shipping, Mr. Ioannis Zafirakis, CFO and Chief Strategy Officer, Mr. Lefteris Papatrifon, Director of Diana Shipping Inc., Ms. Maria Dede, the Company's Chief Accounting Officer. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone to review the forward-looking statements applicable to today's presentation, which can be found on page four of the accompanying first quarter 2023 presentation. Q1 2023 has proven to be a profitable quarter for our company, despite less robust conditions prevailing in the market. Our disciplined chartering strategy, once again, has largely insulated us from the market weakening and has allowed us to generate positive free cash flows. In line with the guidance provided during the company's end-of-year earnings call, we are pleased to declare the distribution of a dividend for this quarter amounting to 15 cents per share. We aim to continue rewarding our shareholders when the conditions allow us to do so. Turning to slide five, I will provide an overview of the company's snapshot as of today. We currently own and operate an extended fleet of 42 vessels in the water with a carrying capacity of approximately 4.7 million deadweight tons. Our fleet utilization has remained consistently high, reaching 99.4% for the first quarter of 2023. Additionally, we employed 1,013 people at sea and ashore by the end of the first quarter. Moving on to slide six and seven, let's review the highlights of the first quarter and recent developments. In January, We concluded the unblocked deal signed in August 2022 to purchase nine Ultramax vessels with the delivery of the motor vessel DSI Aquarius. Also in January, we agreed to sell the motor vessel Aliki for a price of $15.08 million. She was delivered to her new home in February 2023. In February, we agreed to sell the motor vessel Melia for an aggregate sale price of $14 million. million U.S. dollars with a portion paid in cash and the remainder in Series D convertible preferred shares issued by Ocean Palink. Motor vessel Melia was delivered to her new owners in February. Furthermore, within the same month, we purchased the motor vessel Nord Potamak, later named the motor vessel DSI Drammen for a purchase price of 27.9 million U.S. dollars. The vessel was delivered to the company in April. And within the same month, we completed a joint venture for our ownership and procured debt financing from Lordea Bank. Also in February, we declared a cash dividend of 15 cents per common share for the fourth quarter of 2022, amounting to approximately 16 million US dollars. Additionally, we announced the special stock distribution of all Series D convertible preferred shares of OceanPal Inc. held at the time by the company. In March, we filed the 2022 annual report on Form 20S, which is available on our website. Moving to more recent developments. In April, we signed a $100 million US term loan facility with Danish ship finance SAS, which has been drawn down to refinance existing loan facilities. Last week, we entered into two separate term sheets with two major European banks for two senior secured term loan facilities of up to 100 million US dollars and 22.5 million US dollars each. Lastly, today, we announced a quarterly dividend of 15 cents per common share, totaling approximately 16 million US dollars to be paid in the form of DSX shares or cash at the election of each shareholder. As of May 22nd, we have secured revenue of 79% for the remaining ownership days of 2023, amounting to approximately $128.3 million of contracted revenues. Additionally, we have secured approximately $66.4 million of contracted revenues for 2024, representing 26% of the available ownership days for the entire year. Yanis will provide a more detailed analysis of our cash flow generation potential based on the current market environment. Turning to the financial highlights of the first quarter of 2023 on slide 8, as of March 31, 2023, we held a cash and cash equivalent position of $115.7 million, including restricted cash and time deposits, compared to $143.9 million as of December 31st, 2022. Our net debt, including deferred financing costs, stood at $630.8 million at the end of the first quarter of 2023, compared to $663.4 million at the end of December 31st, 2022. Time charter revenues for the first quarter of 2023 amounted to $72.6 million, compared to $65.9 million for the same period in 2022. Lastly, our earnings per share for the first quarter of 2023 came in at 22 cents, compared to 31 cents per share for the same period in 2022. Yanis will provide a more detailed analysis of these numbers later in the presentation. Moving on to slide nine, let's review a summary of our recent chartering activity. We have continued to implement our discipline chartering strategy by securing profitable time charters for nine vessels since our last earnings presentation in February, 2023. To provide some detail, we have charted one Ultramax vessel at a daily rate of 18,250 US dollars for a remaining average period of 326 days. Additionally, we have charted three CamSar Maxes, one Panamax and two post Panamax vessels with an average daily rate of 14,010 US dollars and a remaining average period of 446 days per vessel. Furthermore, we have chartered two Cape-sized vessels with an average daily rate of 19,360 and the remaining average period of 466 days per vessel. We intend to continue chartering our vessels in a staggered manner, focusing on locking in cash flows and positioning ourselves in a balanced way to participate in the market efficiently. I will now pass on the floor to Yannis to provide a more detailed analysis of our financials.