Diana Shipping inc.

Hello and welcome to the Diana Shipping, Inc. 2023 fourth quarter and year end 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 be placed into question queue at any time by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Ed Nebb, Investor Relations for Diana Shipping. Please go ahead, Ed.

Thank you, Kevin, and thanks to everyone who is joining us today for the Diana Shipping, Inc. 2023 fourth quarter and full year conference call. With us today from management are Samira Mispaliu, Chief Executive Officer, and she will introduce the other members of the management team. And so without further ado, I will turn the call over to Ms. Mispaliu.

Thank you, Ed. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Diana Shipping Inc.' 's fourth quarter and end of year 2023 financial results conference call. As Ed said, I'm Samira Mizpalew, the CEO of the company, and it's my pleasure to present alongside our esteemed team, Mr. Stacey Margaronis, who's the director and president, Mr. Ioannis Zafirakis, director, CFO, and chief strategy officer, Mr. Lefteris Papatrifon, Director. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone to review the forward-looking statement on page four of the accompanying presentation, please. So despite market conditions being mixed during the last quarter of 2023 and in early 2024, Our disciplined chartering strategy has allowed us to continue generating positive free cash flows. Within February, we have witnessed the market sentiment improving significantly, and as a result, current market conditions are more robust. In this background, we announced a cash dividend for the fourth quarter of 2023 of 7.5 cents per share. Turning to slide 5, I will review with you the company snapshot as of today. Our fleet comprises 41 vessels in the water with a total dead weight of approximately 4.5 million tons. Our fleet utilization has remained consistently high, reaching 99.7% for the fiscal year 2023, attributed to our prudent and efficient management of our vessels. Additionally, As of the end of the fourth quarter, we employed 1,018 people at sea and ashore. Moving on to slide six, let's go over the key highlights from the third quarter and recent developments. We recently executed the contract for the acquisition of two 81,000 deadweight methanol dual-fuel new building Camp Sarmax dry bulk vessels built at Shunesi Group for a purchase price of 46 million each. These vessels are expected to be delivered to the company in the second half of 2027 and the first half of 2028, respectively. The investment of 92 million US dollars just mentioned was showcased at the Business and Philanthropy Climate Forum during COP28 in Dubai. This presentation highlighted our commitment to reducing the environmental impact of our fleet, demonstrating our dedication to sustainable practices and initiatives. We take our role as an industry leader very seriously, continually striving to enhance our fleet and operations for the benefit of our stakeholders and the environment. In addition, our joint venture entity, Windward Offshore, has increased its investment from two to four high spec commissioning service operation vessels, CSOVs, to be built at Vard Yard. as a result of exercising its options to construct two additional vessels. Our continued participation in this venture is another reflection of our commitment to a greener and more sustainable shipping industry. These investments underscore our dedication to sustainable shipping and positions us to meet the evolving demands of our industry while reducing our carbon footprint. Furthermore, continuing the renewal and modernization of our fleet, two vessels have been sold to unaffiliated third parties. Motor vessel Artemis at a net sale price of approximately 13 million US dollars and motor vessel Houston for approximately 23.3 million US dollars. Before the end of the year, the company released its fourth ESG report for 2022, a copy of which can be found on our website. On November 20th, 2023, we announced the pro-rata distribution of warrants to holders of the company's common stock, of which, as of February 16th, 2024, 1,940,736 were exercised. The warrant distribution provided us with an opportunity to potentially raise equity in a non-dilutive manner for our existing shareholders. As of February 19th, 2024, the company has secured revenue for 62% of the remaining ownership days of the year 2024, amounting to approximately $123.3 million of contracted revenues. Additionally, the company has secured approximately $31 million of contracted revenues for the year 2025, representing 12% 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. As mentioned earlier, we are pleased to declare a quarterly cash dividend of 7.5 cents per common share, totaling approximately 8.7 million U.S. dollars. Finally, we are pleased to announce that our company was honored with a prestigious Dry Cargo Company of the Year Award at the 2023 Lloyd's List Greek Shipping Awards. This recognition is a testament to the hard work, dedication, and excellence of our team. Moving on to slide seven, let's review a summary of our recent chartering activity. We have continued to implement our disciplined strategy by securing profitable time charters for eight vessels since our last earnings presentation in November 2023. To provide some details, we have charted three Ultramax vessels with a weighted average daily rate of $13,950 today for a remaining average period of 401 days. Additionally, three Panamax, Campermax, Post-Panamax vessels have been charted at a weighted average daily rate of $15,631 per day for a remaining average period of 365 days. And two Cape-sized Newcastle MAX vessels have been charted with a weighted average daily rate of $21,043 per day and a remaining average period of 486 days. Slide 8 illustrates our commitment to strategically charter our vessels in a staggered manner. Our emphasis is on securing positive free cash flows through our disciplined employment strategy and positioning ourselves in a balanced way to participate in the market efficiently. I will now pass the floor to Yanis to provide a more detailed analysis of our financials.