Global Ship Lease, Inc.

Good day, my name is Dennis and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Global Ship Lease second quarter 2022 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, press star one again. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ian Weber, Chief Executive Officer of Global Ship Lease. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much. Good morning, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the Global Ship Lease Second Quarter 2022, a news conference call. The slides that accompany today's presentation are available on our website at www.globalshiplease.com. Slides two and three of that presentation remind you that today's call may include forward-looking statements that are based on current expectations and assumptions and are, by their nature, inherently uncertain and outside of the company's control. Actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements due to many factors, including those described in the safe harbor section of the slide presentation. We also draw your attention to the risk factors section of our most recent annual report on Form 20F, which is for 2021 and was filed with the SEC on March the 24th this year. You can obtain this via our website or via the SEC's. All of our statements are qualified by these and other disclosures in our reports filed with the SEC. We do not undertake any duty to update forward-looking statements. For reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measures to which we will refer during this call, to the most directly comparable measures calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP, you should refer to the earnings release that we issued this morning, which is also available on our website. As usual, I'm joined today by our Executive Chairman, Georgi Rukos, our Chief Financial Officer, Tassos Soropoulos, and our Chief Commercial Officer, Tom Lister. George will begin the call with a high-level commentary on GSL and our industry, and then Tasos, Tom, and I will take you through our recent activity, quarterly results and financials, current market environment, after which we'd be pleased to take your questions. So now turning to slide four, I'll pass the call over to George.

Thank you, Ian, and good afternoon or evening to all of you joining us today. On our last quarterly call in early May, we noticed that the microenvironment contained significant uncertainty ranging from war in Ukraine to lockdowns in China to rising inflation around the world. We also at the time drew a contrast between those very real unknowns on the one hand and the clarity and fixed nature of GSL's business and earnings on the other. These dynamics continue to define the current period. as questions about the macro environment grow more pronounced, while GSL continues to re-up the benefits of a market segment with almost zero idle capacity and limited net fleet growth through the middle of the decade. Meanwhile, poor congestion continues to tie up ships and potential labor disputes present the risk of further disruption to the liner sector and broader supply chains. Now turning briefly to the numbers. Throughout the first half of this year, the substantial uplift from our 2021 accretive growth and from locking in new charters at higher rates has doubled our EBITDA and more than trebled our normalized net income versus the same period last year. And we have continued to agree additional charters and extensions in 2022, including forward fixtures for 2023. adding a further $435 million of contract cover for our fleet in the year to date. On the basis of this strong multi-year coverage, we were able to place $350 million of senior secured notes in a private placement during the quarter, simplifying our capital structure and reducing our cost of debt in a manner that strengthens us for the long term. This paper was privately rated investment grade, and further improvements in our balance sheet were recognized in an improved outlook in our corporate rating from Moody's and a notch up to double B from Standard & Poor's. In line with a growing consensus from customers and other stakeholders, we have established good momentum on the decarbonization front. We are focused primarily on retrofitting our existing ships. with proven technologies to improve their energy efficiency and reduce emissions. We have various projects underway in close collaboration with our liner operator customers to ensure that efficiency-enhanced CAPEX increases the commercial value of a ship and drives improved earnings going forward. We also monitor technically and commercially promising new carbon mitigation solutions in the market including a compelling carbon capture technology in which we made a small investment in the quarter. Concluding my opening remark, we're living in uncertain times, and the extraordinary volatility of the capital markets across all sectors reflects that. Against this backdrop, we maintain our conservative and risk-averse approach, extending forward contract cover, building equity value by reducing our cost of debt, and delivering, allocating capital in a highly disciplined manner, and growing cash liquidity to ensure that we're well positioned to manage risks and capitalize on opportunities as they arise. And with that, I will turn the call to Ian.