Diana Shipping inc.

Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Diana Shipping Inc. conference call on the second quarter 2025 financial results. We are joined by the company's Chief Executive Officer, Ms. Semiramis Payou. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a Q&A session. To ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. Please note that this conference is being recorded. We will now turn the floor over to Ms. Semiramis Payou. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Diana Shipping Inc.'s second quarter 2025 financial results conference call. It's my pleasure to present alongside our esteemed team Mr. Stacey Margaroni, Director and President, Mr. Ioannis Zafiraki, Director, Co-CFO and Chief Strategy Officer, and Ms. Maria Dedek, Co-CFO. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone to review the forward-looking statements on page 4 of the accompanying presentation. The dry box market posted a mixed performance in Q2. CASE once again outperformed the smaller segments as West African box size exports surged, Chinese iron ore demand held steady, and Australian miners pushed hard into their fiscal year-end. Cape fleet growth slowed to a crawl, slipping below .5% -on-year, as only six New Castle maxes and three standard capes joined the fleet. A different story for the other sizes, with fleet growth of .7% and .5% -on-year for Panama and geared bulk carriers respectively. Overall, bulk carrier markets have been softer in the first half of 2025, with average sector earnings down by about 30% -on-year amid weaker demand trends in key commodities. U.S. government policy remained in focus during the quarter after the branded Liberation Day on April 2, though generally the direct impacts of tariffs and counter-tariff on dry bulk trade appear limited and aggregate demand trends in China are seemingly more significant for overall dry bulk demand. The USTR proposal cast a shadow early in the quarter, but towards late April it became clear that the impact would be limited for dry bulk trade. The quarter also saw escalations in the Middle East conflict, at some point causing concern of a closure of the Straits of Hormuz. This situation remains volatile and Red Sea rerouting is likely to continue. Despite these uncertainties, we were able to secure three charters since our last Financial Results Conference call across all segments in the fleet, all with existing clients, and most notably we were able to take advantage of the quarter's period of contango in the Cape Side segment by fixing those vessels at a considerable premium over the spot market. Turning to slide 5, let's review our company's snapshot as of today. Diana Shipping Inc., founded in 1972 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange since 2005, operates a fleet of 36 dry bulk vessels, six of which are mortgage free. Our fleet has an average age of 11.7 years and a total dead weight capacity of approximately 4.1 million tonnes. We anticipate the delivery of two methanol dual fuel new building Campsar Max dry bulk vessels at the end of 2027 and early 2028 respectively. Fleet utilization reached .5% for the second quarter of 2025, highlighting our effective vessel management strategy. As of the end of June, we employed 968 individuals at sea and ashore. Financially, our net debt stands at 46% of market value, supported by $150 million in cash reserved as of quarter end and total secured revenues of approximately $117 million as of July 22. Moving on to slide 6, let's go over the key highlights from the second quarter and recent developments. In April, we celebrated the company's 20-year anniversary of listing on the New York Stock Exchange with a closing bell ceremony and hosted an Invest Today in New York. The investor presentation is available on the company's website for your referral. In June, continuing the renewal and modernization of our fleet, we announced the sale of motor vessel Selina for a purchase price of approximately $11.8 million before commission. She was delivered to her new owners in July. As of July 22, we have also secured $66.1 million of contracted revenues for 69% of the remaining ownership days of the year 2025 and have secured $50 million of contracted revenues for 20% of the ownership days of the year 2026. Finally, we are pleased to declare a quarterly cash dividend of $0.01 per common share with respect to the second quarter of 2025, totaling approximately $1.16 million. Slide 7 summarizes our recent chartering activity. Since our last earnings presentation, we have secured time charters for three vessels. One Ultra Max vessel at a daily rate of 12,250 for 385 days. One Pan Am Max vessel at a daily rate of 10,100 for an average of 372 days. And one New Castle Max vessel at 25,000 US dollars for 442 days. Slide 8 highlights our discipline chartering strategy. We focus on staggered medium to long term charters to avoid clustered maturities, ensuring earnings visibility and resilience against market downturns. Now I'll pass the floor to Maria for a more detailed financial analysis.

Good morning. Moving to slide 9, financial highlights. The second quarter of 2025 marked another profitable quarter for Diana. Time charter revenues for the second quarter were $54.7 million compared to $56 million for the same quarter last year. This 2% decrease was a result of a decrease in the size of the fleet rather than the market. As the average time charter equivalent rate that our vessels were fixed at during the quarter was higher than the average time charter equivalent rate of the same quarter last year. Despite the above, net income for the second quarter of 2025 improved significantly to $4.5 million compared to a net loss of $2.8 million for the second quarter of 2024. This turn around was largely driven by decreased interest and finance costs resulting from a combination of reduced average debt levels and a decline in the weighted average interest rate. Additionally, net income for the quarter was also affected by non-operating unrealized gains compared to non-operating losses recorded in the second quarter of 2024, both related to fair values adjustments on our investment in ocean power and the warrants. As a result, end per common share diluted was $0.03 in the second quarter of 2025 compared to a loss per share diluted of $0.04 in the second quarter of 2024. On the balancing side, our cash equivalents restricted cash and time deposits as of June 30, 2025 decreased to $149.6 million compared to $207.2 million as of December 31, 2024. During the six months ended June 30, 2025, the company generated positive operating cash flows of $25.8 million which was utilized to service debt obligations. In addition, available cash was strategically deployed across a range of investing and financing activities. More specifically, during the six months ended June 30, 2025, we invested approximately $23 million to repair the shares of our common stock in a tender offer reinforcing our commitment to shareholder value. During the second quarter, we initiated a position at Genco Shipping and Trading Limited, a publicly listed company, and as of June 30, 2025, our investment was at $24.8 million. Following that date, we continued to gradually increase our stake and on July 17, 2025, we applied a Schedule 13D disclosing a .72% ownership interest. This strategic move reflects our confidence in Genco's long-term value and is aligned with our broader investment objectives. Finally, during the six months ended June 30, 2025, as part of our capital commitment to our equity method investors, we invested $12 million in Windward Offshore and offshore wind vessel company building four CSOV vessels, and in EcoGas Holding, a company building two 7,500 cubic meters LPG vessels with delivery in 2027. Long-term debt and finance liabilities net of the FEDFIN Asking Post decreased to $610.2 million as of June 30, 2025, compared to $677.5 million as of June 30, 2025, compared to $637.5 million as of December 31, 2024. This represents a reduction of approximately 4%, reflecting the steady data monetization over the period as illustrated on slide 12. Going to the next slide, we present the financial and other data that influence our revenues, time starter equivalent rate, and daily operating expenses rate for the periods in review. In the second quarter of 2025, the average number of vessels was 37, compared to 39 in the second quarter of 2024. This reduction reflects the sale of motor vessels mainly early in March, as well as the sale of one additional vessel in the third quarter of 2024. This reduction impacted ownership days, available days, and operating days, with IT inputs and calculating time starter equivalents, daily OPEC and fleet utilization. Our time starter equivalent, which is defined as our revenues less voyage expenses divided by the available days, was 15,492, compared to 15,106 in the second quarter of 2024. This increase of 3% reflects the stronger charter rates secured during the quarter, compared to the same quarter last year. This improvement is a direct result of our consistent and disciplined chartering strategy, which allowed us to secure favorable employment for our vessels, even in a challenging market environment. Fleet utilization decreased to .5% compared to .9% in the same quarter last year, as a result of increase of higher days incurred in the second quarter of 2025, compared to the same quarter of 2024. Vessel operating expenses for the quarter decreased by 6% to 20 million, compared to the same quarter last year, which was 91.3 million in the second quarter of 2024, due to the decrease in the size of the fleet. On a per day basis, the daily operating expenses in the second quarter of 2025 also decreased by 1% to 5,944, compared to 5,993 in the second quarter of 2024. This was the result of our ongoing efforts to manage cost effectively.