Diana Shipping inc.

Hello, and welcome to the Diana Shipping, Inc. First Quarter 2024 Conference Calling 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 in 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. Please go ahead, Ed.

Thank you, Kevin, and thanks to everyone who is joining us for the Diana Shipping, Inc. 2024 First Quarter Conference Call. Leading the call today is Semiramis Paliu, Chief Executive Officer, and she will now introduce the other members of the management team. So I will turn the call over to Ms. Paliu.

Thank you, Ed. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Diana Shipping Inc.' 's first quarter 2024 financial results conference call. As I said, I am Samira Mishpaliou, the CEO of the company, and it's my pleasure to present alongside our esteemed team, Mr. Stacey Margaronis, Director and President, Mr. Ioannis Zafirakis, Director, CFO, and Chief Strategy Officer, Mr. Lefteris Papatrifon, Director, and Ms. Maria Dede, Chief Accounting Officer. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone to review the forward-looking statements on page four of the accompanying presentation. The first quarter of 2024 started unusually strong, with Cape size earnings being the highest in 14 years and pulling along the other sectors. Even though the market has softened since, the sentiment is still strong for the balance of the year. In this background, we announce a cash dividend for the first quarter of 2024 of 75 cents per common share. Turning to slide five, I will review with you the company snapshot as of today. Our fleet comprises of 39 dry-bought vessels in the water, with a total dead weight of approximately 4.4 million tons. The company is also expecting to take delivery of two methanol, dual-fuel, new-building Camp Thermax drive-out vessels. Our fleet utilization has remained consistently high, reaching 99.1% for the first quarter of 2024, attributed to our prudent and efficient management of our vessels. Additionally, as of the end of March, we employed 993 people at sea and ashore. Moving on to slide six, let's go over the key highlights for the first quarter and recent developments. In February 2024, the company executed the contract for the acquisition of two 81,200 deadweight methanol dual fuel new building Camp Thermax dry bulk vessels built at Trinity Group for a purchase price of 46 million US dollars each. These vessels are expected to be delivered to the company in the second half of 2027 and the first half of 2028 respectively. We take pride in our role as an industry leader, continually striving to enhance our fleet and operations for the benefit of our stakeholders and the environment. In addition, the joint venture entity, Windward Offshore, increased its investment from two to four high-spec commissioning service operation vessels, DSOVs, to be built at Vard Yard as a result of exercising its option to construct two additional vessels. The continued participation in this venture is another reflection of the company's commitment to a greener and more sustainable shipping industry. These investments also underscore our focus on seeking new opportunities for the company and our shareholders that may arise from the transition to new energy solutions. Furthermore, continuing the renewal and modernization of our fleet, one vessel has been sold to an affiliate third party. Motor vessel Houston was sold at a net sale price of approximately 23.3 million US dollars. In December 2023, we completed the pro-rata distribution of warrants to holders of the company's common stock, of which, as of May 20th, 3,284,372 were exercised. The warrants distribution provided us with an opportunity to raise equity in a non-diluted manner for our existing shareholders. As of May 2024, the company has secured revenue for 66% of the remaining ownership days of the year 2024, amounting to approximately 96.8 million US dollars of contracted revenues. Additionally, the company has secured approximately 48.8 million US dollars of contracted revenues for the year 2025. representing 18% 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 further on. As mentioned earlier, we are pleased to declare a quarterly cash dividend of 7.5 cents per common share, totaling approximately 9.1 million US dollars. Finally, we are happy to share that our company has been honored with a Gold Environmental Leader Award and Gold Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leader Award at the 2024 ESG Shipping Awards International. Moving on to slide seven, let's review a summary of our recent chartering activities. So we have continued to implement our disciplined chartering strategy by securing profitable time charters for four vessels since our last earnings presentation in February 2024. To provide some detail, we have charted one Ultramax vessel with a weighted average daily rate of $16,500 for an average period of 452 days. Additionally, two Panamax vessels have been charted at a weighted average daily rate of 14,573 US dollars per day, for an average period of 472 days. And one Cape size vessel has been charted with an average daily rate of 27,150 US dollars, and the remaining average period of 543 days. Slide eight. It 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 Yannis to provide a more detailed analysis for our financials.