11/13/2025

speaker
Operator
Conference Moderator

Welcome to OET's Third Quarter 2025 Financial Results Presentation. We will begin shortly. Aristides Alefouzos, CEO, and Herakles Barounis, CFO of Okeanis Ecotankers will take you through the presentation. They will be pleased to address any questions raised at the end of the call. I would like to advise you that this session is being recorded. Iroquois will now begin the presentation.

speaker
Herakles Barounis
CFO

Thank you. Hi, everyone. Welcome to the presentation of the earnings results of Okeanese ecotankers for the third quarter of 2025. We will discuss matters that are forward-looking in nature, and actual results may differ from the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements. Please read through the relevant disclaimer on slide two. So starting on slide four in the executive summary, I'm pleased to present the highlights of the third quarter of 2025. We achieved fleet-wide time-chartered equivalent of about $47,000 per vessel per day. Our VFCCs were almost at 46,000 and our series maxes at $48,000. We report adjusted EBITDA of $45.2 million, adjusted net profit of $24.7 million, and adjusted BPS of 77 cents. Continuing to deliver on our commitment to distribute value to our shareholders, our board declared a 14th consecutive distribution in the form of a dividend of 75 cents per share. Total distributions over the last four quarters stand at $2.12 per share, or approximately 90% of our earnings for the period. Since the end of the quarter, we have declared the purchase options for our last save and lease back finances on the Nisos Rina and Nisos Vespotiko, which will be delivered to us in the second quarter of next year. Moving on to slide five. We have over the years stated our clear and strategic policy of distributing and maximizing value directly to our shareholders. Since we have had a fully delivered fleet in 2022, we have distributed over 90% of our adjusted EPS. Since our IPO in Norway in 2018, we have distributed approximately 435 million in dividends, or 1.8 times our initial market cap. This quarter, with visibility into very strong Q4 bookings, as well as fixtures that run into Q1, and our view on the current market dynamics, our board decided to distribute 100% of our reported EPS at 75 cents per share. On slide six, we show the detail of our income statement for the quarter and the nine month period ending in September of 2025. TC revenue for the nine months stood at 172.5 million, EBITDA was almost $125 million, and reported net income was over $63.5 million, or almost $2 per share. Moving on to slide 7 and our balance sheet, we ended the quarter with $58 million of cash and approximately $51 million of trade receivables on top. Our balance sheet debt was $617 million. Book leverage stands at 57%. while our market-adjusted net activity is around 40%. On slide eight, I'm taking the opportunity to go over one of our key competitive advantages, our fleet. We have a total of 14 vessels, six Suez Maxis and eight ESCCs, with an average age of only six years. That's the youngest fleet amongst listed crewed tanker peers. All our vessels are built in South Korea and Japan, are scrubber-fitted and eco-designed. Our focus on modern assets is clearly paying off in our commercial performance. We have recently completed the dry dock of the Nisos Cyknos, while the Nisos Cyknos follows during the port. I may remind you that for 2026, the only capital expenditure we have is for one Suez Max, the 10-year dry dock of the Nisos. Slide nine, moving on to our capital structure. At the end of the summer, we concluded the refinancing of the Nisos Anafli with a great band, completing the series of refis of our three Chinese leased vessels, all three at margins between 135 and 140 basis points. These transactions continued within the strategy we said when we commenced the cycle of improving pricing and break-evens, extending maturities and adding flexibility. Since 2023, our margin has improved by 155 basis points on the 12 refinance vessels or 125 basis points across the entire fleet. That's a benefit of about $8 million one year at our current debt levels, or $1,500 per vessel per day across each vessel of our fleet. As I mentioned earlier, we recently declared the purchase options for the Nisus Rhenia and Nisus Sputnikon. The former is expected to be delivered to us in early May, and the latter in early June of 2026. We have several options available to us at the moment on how to refinance those vessels, and we look forward to the opportunity to further improve our capital structure and break even levels. As an illustration, we have calculated the included margin across all 14 vessels in the second half of next year, assuming we finance these two BNCCs at similar terms as the ones we have achieved in our recent refis, potentially bringing our fleet-wide average margin down to 160 basis points. I will not pass the presentation, but I see this for the commercial market at it.

speaker
Aristides Alefouzos
CEO

Thank you, Irakli. Firstly, I would like to thank the whole OAT team and the technical manager. As this is a genuine team effort, these results are a product of in-house management and Greek ship-loving devotion. Q3 is traditionally the seasonal low point of the year, but once again, we were able to deliver very solid operational performance. Flea-wide TCE came in at $46,600 per day, with VLCCs at $45,500 and $48,200 on our Suez Maxis, and we achieved near-perfect utilization across the fleet. If we compare our earnings with peers that have already reported Q3 results, our outperformance for the quarter stood at 30% for the VLCCs and 45% for the Suez Maxis. Our commercial strategy this quarter focused on positioning the VLCCs to open in mid Q4 with a strong balance in the West ahead of the winter market. One of our VLCCs performed a clean product backhaul voyage to reposition to the West and three other of our VLCCs fixed transatlantic voyages to capture improving summer rates, as well as keeping the position for our preferred Q4. On the Suezmax side, the Seekinos and the Seeknos both secured long-haul, front-haul voyages heading east for their dry dock schedules, while our remaining four Suezmaxes stayed in the west and capitalized on very healthy regional conditions. The Suezmax is a very versatile asset that we really love. If you optimize on triangulation, niche trades, and limit waiting time, you can really outperform the markets. These decisions maximized returns, protected our utilization, and continued the trend we've seen all year. Our Suez Maxes once again outperformed the VLCCs on a per day basis, and this is the fifth consecutive sector. Looking ahead to Q4, it's shaping up to be a fantastic quarter. What is most exciting though is that the rates have continued to strengthen, and we're covering days in Q1 already at six digit figures. As of today, 80% of our VLCC spot days are fixed at $88,100 per day, and 48% of our Suez Max days at $60,800 per day. This gives us a fleet-wide average of $80,700 per day on the fixed portion, and this is roughly two-thirds of the quarter. Similarly to the Q3 results and based on peers that have already reported earnings, our guidance out performance on fixed days stands at 37% for the VLCCs and 33% for the Suez Maxis. The positioning choices we made in Q3 are now paying off wonderfully. Four VLCCs, which we had in the West, eastbound voyages, locking in strong returns for a long duration. Nisra's care fixed a prompt cargo out of west coast India to do a AG to the east at very attractive levels as well. We also fixed the VLCC for a backhaul at rates we would love to do on a front haul voyage. When she's open in the west, If we are able to fix the U.S. Gulf East cargo with limited weighting at today's rates, we will have covered over four months north of $125,000 per day on that particular ship. The Suez Max segment remains firm as well, with Cypnos now out of dry dock and Cypnos next in line. Our earnings on our six Suez Maxes were impacted, though, by repositioning the Suez to and from dry dock. We have yet to see delays in the Turkish trades, which is a huge driver of Swissmax strength in the winter. And now a little bit about the market. This is a real tanker bull market. Rates showed strength from the end of the summer. What gives me confidence today is that we have all sides pushing. The VLCCs will drive 20 points higher one week, and the next week you have Afra and Suez catching up. Then the VLCCs happen again. This has happened consistently throughout Q4. The increased flow of cargoes does not give charters the time to sit back, let the position list grow, and push down rates. tightening global sanctions continue to restrict supply of compliance on it. And with OPEC Plus announcing incremental production over the past months, plus rising ton miles out of the US Gulf, Brazil, Guyana and West Africa, we expect a strong winter and Q1 across both our asset classes. It is evident that the UK Chinese and Turkish receivers, but we'll get into this a bit later in further detail. We continue to outperform the market on slide 13 and our peers quarter after quarter. As the only listed pure eco and fully scrubber fitted tanker platform, we consistently sit at the top of the earnings stack. Since late 2019, we have generated roughly 220 million of cumulative outperforms. 113 from our VLCCs and 107 from our Suez Maxis. This may just be luck, but it could also be the result of a disciplined strategy, fleet quality, and an agile commercial mindset that lets us react faster than the broader market. On this slide, we've been showing versions of this for a long time because the trend is unchanging and extremely supportive. More than 40% of the global VLCC and Suezmax fleet is over 15 years old, and around 20% is involved in sanctioned trades. These vessels are effectively removed from mainstream employment. At the same time, the order book remains modest, around 14% for VLCCs and less than 20% for Suezmax, with many of those delivering after 2027. Now, it's true that ordering has picked up recently, but there are several important mitigating factors any stress from this. Most new orders are scheduled far up, in many cases 28 and 29, because earlier yard slots simply are not available. A meaningful portion of orders is replacement tonnage for very old ships, not incremental growth. And importantly, sanctioned tonnage continues to grow faster as a share of the global fleet than the order book. This further reduces the mainstream fleet available for compliance trades. I am personally convinced that sanctioned vessels and non-sanctioned vessels that use dodgy flag states and insurances while engaged in sanctioned business will never return to the mainstream market. So even with an uptick in ordering, the broader picture improves. Retirements are not being replaced fast enough, effective compliance continues to shrink, and the modern end of the market, where OAT sits, Building on the previous slide in the current order book, another mitigating factor is yard capacity. Even if owners wanted to place large orders today, they simply couldn't on any scale for any time soon. Global shipbuilding capacity is half since 2010, both the number of active yards and total output. And yards are allocating capacity to higher margin products. This reinforces our conviction that the value of a modern, efficient fleet like ours will continue to rise. Against this backdrop, OIT is resilient by design. Our fleet is young, fully eco, and 100% scrubber fitted. Purpose built to outperform in an aging market where a large portion of older non-compliant vessels will struggle with EEXI and CAI requirements. Roughly 40% of the global VLCC and Suezmax fleet are eco-designed. At OAT, the number is 100%. Turning to the broader macro environment, fundamentals remain constructive. The IEA projects that supply will modestly exceed demand through 2026, leading to some stock builds. Even more supportive, recently IEA brought back the no peak oil scenario. In this view, oil and gas keep rising through 2050, while coal use declines more slowly than many expected. This effectively drops the idea of peak demand and points to a longer and stronger role for fossil fuels in the global energy system. I personally do not subscribe to the large stock build theory. OPEC Plus has underproduced to its quota and effectively a lot of sanctioned crude is floating. Effective supply of compliant crude is much more manageable. Saying this, a flat forward price on crude or even a slight contango is the healthiest for our market. It does not incentivize drawing storage like when in backwardation, nor does it pay for real storage when in a deep contango. which could be a short-term boom but will create medium-term pain. The shallow contango, or flat oil market which we are in, makes longer-haul business affordable, which is exactly what the Tanger gang wants. What matters, however, is the composition of where those barrels come from. Incremental supplies coming from the Atlantic Basin, the US, Brazil, Guyana, while demand growth is driven by China, India, and wider Asia. India has been a surprise this year and has shown formidable growth in oil demand. This all means longer voyages, more ton miles, and higher utilization for large crew carriers. On slide 18, we illustrate visually a point of majority. Most incremental production is coming from the Atlantic, while demand is anchored in Asia. This dynamic increases ton miles and tightens vessel availability, precisely the environment in which our fleet is optimized to our performance. This slide is very pertinent if we tie in what is happening with sanctions, which we cover in the next slide. As India, Turkey, and China divert some of their purchases to Western-compliant crude, where do they buy from? Some comes from the AG, while also West Africa, Brazil, the US Gulf, and Guyana. Sitting next to my spot team and following cargo quotes every day, it is abundantly evident that this replacement is occurring. And this is exactly what we need to drive our market. New compliant cargoes replacing non-compliant cargoes. This is very bullish trade and time charter rates, but it's also bullish values, which I'll explain in the next slide. Now, sanctions. Sanctions have been a major structural driver. Roughly 16% of the global fleet is under sanctions. And when you include shadow time that is unlikely to return to the compliance trade, the mainstream fleet is actually shrinking. This is the first time in many years we've seen negative effective fleet growth on the compliance side. And I repeat, I strongly believe these ships are never coming back to compete on compliant trades. More importantly, Iranian and Russian exports remain near record levels, but barrels are harder to place and pushing more crude into floating storage. Repeating myself, this storage is increasingly covered by older shadow tonnage, which is unlikely to reenter the compliant trade, shrinking the mainstream fleet. So let's look at what is the effect of Turkey, India, and China reducing purchases of Russian crude. Firstly, until now, exports do not stop, and nor do we expect them to. Shutting down production in Russia just has too many medium-term problems that outweigh short-term challenges. So the cargo flows. India and Turkey reduce imports. And where do these laden ships go? They go towards China. This is the most likely eventual buyer. Right off the bat, the average voyage has doubled. Then, as the Chinese cannot just absorb all this extra crude, every voyage incurs additional waiting time while the cargo is waiting to be sold. This can easily add another 20 to 30 days per voyage. Next, due to the most recent sanctions on Roslyn and Lugoil, compliant tonnage that was moving Russian cargo legally under the price cap has greatly reduced. Finally, Ukrainian drone attacks have impacted Russian refinery outputs, where product exports have been meaningfully restricted. What does this mean? More could be exported. These four points have severely stretched the dark fleet. In my opinion, the dark fleet size, as of this summer, cannot move the cargo base today. incorporating longer voyages, more waiting time, less compliant tonnage, and more crude exports. So the dark fleet needs to grow. The dark fleet will grow, and this will further reduce the size of the compliant fleet while pushing up values. Replacing sanctioned barrels with compliant supply would lift demand for mainstream ships, tightening effective supply, and supporting freight rates. For owners of modern assets like us, this is a powerful tailwind. Last interesting point for today's market overview is inventories and oil on the water. OECD inventories remain near the low of the 10-year range, while crude in transit is at multi-year highs. China is buying for their SPR, while a lot of the floating crude in transit is sanctioned crude, having a challenge to discharge due to stricter sanctions enforcement. That's a clear sign of a tight market, and it supports an elevated freight environment, especially for modern, efficient vessels like ours. With all the above backdrops from both supply and demand side, crude tanker utilization is now 93%, the highest level in three years, corresponding to a highly attractive rates, similar to the period before the EU ban on Russian crude. Every one percentage point increase in utilization equates to roughly $25,000 per day for a VLCC and $15,000 per day for a Suezmax. Having our cost basis in mind, this illustrates the significant operating leverage of our platform. For the past few years, Q1 has been a very strong quarter and often the strongest. We do not think that 95% to 96% utilization in Q1 is unlikely at all. To close the presentation, rates have strengthened meaningfully. VLCC earnings on the Middle East to China route are above 2022 highs. mass rates are firming in tandem. Eco and scrubber fitted vessels earn a clear and constant premium. And OET sits at the very top of that curve. We have absolute spot exposure, a lean balance sheet, and a young high-spec fleet. This combination gives us exceptional torque to a sustained crewed tanker upside. As a team, we are now focused on continuing this level of outperformance when it really matters like today. Thank you.

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