Global Ship Lease, Inc.

ladies and gentlemen thank you for standing by and welcome to the global ship lease q3 2022 earnings conference call i would now like to turn the call over to ian weber ceo please go ahead uh thank you good morning good afternoon everybody and welcome to the global shipley's third quarter 2022 earnings conference call the slides that accompany today's presentation are available on our website

at www.globalshiplease.com. Slides two and three remind you, as normal, 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 harbour 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, 2022. And 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 board 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, Tasos Savopoulos, 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, and the current market environment. After that, we'll be pleased to take your questions. So turning now 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. As we have flagged In recent quarters, macro headwinds and negative economic sentiment have continued to assert pressure on consumer demand and thus on the container shipping industry, driving an ongoing normalization in the charter market, leading to downward pressure on charter rates and asset values from the historically high levels of the recent past. Nevertheless, because we have secured extensive contract cover for a large portion of our fleet, while the market remained very hot, including 10 forward fixings of five years each signed during the third quarter to start in late 2022, 2023 and even 2024, GSL is well positioned to weather the challenges ahead and to capitalize on opportunities that may arise. Quantitatively, we have added nearly a billion dollars to our contracted revenue this year, with $770 million added in the third quarter alone. giving over $2.2 billion of contracted revenue spread over just under three years. As you can see on the right side of the slide here, our results for the quarter continue to demonstrate the heightened level of cash flow and earnings that we established through extensive chartering activity in recent years, as well as our well-timed acquisition of vessels mostly last year on below market rates that we were able to recharter at far higher rates in the market over the course of 2021 and 2022. We have a robust balance sheet with no debt maturities before 2026, and an overall low cost of debt despite the global high interest rate environment, with all of our floating interest rates fully hedged, capping the floating rate at 75 basis points, with a weighted average cost of debt of 4.53%, We're also continuing to pay our sustainable dividend of $1.5 per common share annualized and have opportunistically repurchased 20 million of our shares this year, of which 15 million was in the third quarter, having secured our 40 million buyback authorization during the second quarter of this year. From this position of strength and prudence, we're focused on the long-term resilience of our business, looking to continue to generate sustainable value preparing for decarbonization and further improving our competitiveness by investing in fuel performance optimization of our fleet in conjunction with our customers and supporting wider decarbonization initiatives. As and when attractive counter-cyclical opportunities arise that meet our strict criteria, we want to be ready to act decisively for the benefit of our shareholders. With that, I will turn the call over to Ian.

Thank you, George. Please turn to slide five. Here we show the diversification of our chartering base, which now includes over 10 of the top liner operators. In total, as of September 30th, we had over $2.2 billion of contracted revenue spread over a TEU-weighted average of 2.9 years. We're fully covered for this year, 2022, and 90% of our days are covered for next year, 2023. We're pleased to be recognized as a trusted partner to the liner companies, and we work closely with them to ensure that our vessels meet their long-term strategic needs, both by ensuring that they are reliable, well-maintained, and well-operated, but also by jointly pursuing decarbonization and other vessel optimization investments, including for fuel efficiency, that increase performance for our operators and charters and long-term asset value for ourselves. Turning to slide six, these are the vessels that we owned prior to 2021. You can see in dark blue and in red the charters that we agreed during 2021 and 2022 respectively at materially increased rates and in most cases on a multi-year basis. As George mentioned, we signed a further 10 forward fixtures during the third quarter of this year, in each instance with a five-year firm period. These long-term charters, which commence on the expiry of existing arrangements in late 2022, late this year, through 2023 and into 2024, are reassuring in an otherwise uncertain environment. Turning to slide five, these are the vessels that we acquired during 2021, again with subsequent charters indicated in dark blue and in red. I'll point out a couple of things. As we've highlighted on the bottom of the slide, the combined impact of these accretive acquisitions and the rechartering of our vessels that came open in our pre-existing fleet almost doubled our first nine months adjusted EBITDA in 2022 compared to the prior year period. This represents a major step change for GSL. And secondly, some of the vessels which we acquired in 2021 had charters attached at the date of acquisition, which were meaningfully below the then prevailing market rates. Consistent with our strategy of building forward cover, we were able to agree new charters as the market strengthened at rates that were even more accretive than those we modeled at the time of agreeing to the transaction. As a guiding principle, we are risk averse and disciplined in acquisitions, but will move decisively when there are opportunities to invest, where residual risk where residual risk is low and potential upside is significant, as in these cases. On the next slide, slide eight, as in previous quarters, we showed illustrative guidance across different rates scenarios. As always, I want to be very clear that this is not a forecast. We're not forecasting charter rates or our earnings, but we're rather illustrating the extent of our contracted revenues and our very limited stock market exposure through 2023. As I mentioned before, we fixed approximately 90% of our days for 2023, with those few vessels set to come open into the market, currently earning charter rates meaningfully below recent highs. Moving on to slide nine, where we show an overview of our dynamic and disciplined capital allocation strategy. As we mentioned, our contracted revenue is highly visible and provides us with full coverage of our operating needs, and debt service, both interest and amortization. We've also been able to return capital to shareholders, both by way of our sustainable dividends of $1.50 per year, 37.5 cents a quarter, and as discussed on previous earnings calls and as George mentioned, our share buybacks. We've now invested $30 million in buybacks since the third quarter of last year and $15 million since our most recent earnings call for Q2 of this year. we still have some $20 million of our overall $40 million buyback authorization remaining. We continue to de-level the business to manage balance sheet risk and to build equity value. We're investing by way of CapEx over and above routine maintenance spend, for example, on regulatory dry dockings to enhance the commercial relevance and competitiveness of our fleet in an evolving regulatory and decarbonization environment. As noted, This includes working with charterers to install energy-saving retrofits to vessels currently on the water. As the cycle turns and the risk and return dynamic improves, we also keep an eye out for potential accretive growth and fleet renewal opportunities on our usual selective and highly disciplined basis. We also want to maintain strong cash liquidity both for resilience and in order to retain optionality in a cyclical and uncertain market. Through all of this, our ultimate focus is on generating long-term value for shareholders through a balanced approach. With that, I'll turn the call over to Tasos to talk you through our financials.

Thank you, Ian. On slide 10, we have summarized our financial and highlights for the first nine months of 2022. Revenue for the nine-month period was $408.6 million, up from $294.4 million in the prior year period. Similarly, adjusted EBITDA for the nine-month period was $298.4 million, almost double the $158.1 million the first nine months of 2021. Our normalized income, which adjusts for one of items, more than double from $104.6 million in the first nine months of 2021 to $221 million in the same period for 2022. On the balance sheet, during the third quarter, the major event was the completion of the U.S. private placement of $350 million of privately rated investment-grade debt priced at a fixed rate of 5.69%, used to fully redeem the more expensive 8% senior unsecured notes due 2024, the HafenCredit facility due 2026, and the Helene facility due 2024. Taken together with our interest floating rate caps at 0.75% for all of our floating rate debt, we have reduced our average cost of debt to 4.53%. We have also five vessels unencumbered and extended maturities such that we have no refinancing through 2026. We have a little over $260 million of cash on our balance sheet. Net of restricted cash and minimum liquidity governance gives $97 million about, much of which is required for working capital. Altogether, we have comprehensively improved our overall financial position and flexibility. Also, we have utilized 20 million of the 40 million share buyback authorization that we put in place in the second quarter. 50 million of these buybacks have taken place since our last earnings call. All of this is in addition to the 10 million of buybacks in 2021. Finally, and as Ian's mentioned, we are paying a quarterly dividend of 37.5 cents per share, $1.5 per share annualized. On slide 11 now is a summary of our key capital structure developments over time. In the upper left is our amortization schedule through the end of 2023. We aggressively amortize our debt as we think is prudent in this business, and we are focused on managing refinancing risk. Our data amortization schedule is in the appendix of this presentation on slide 29. On the upper right of slide 11, you can see the margin and overall cost of our debt, both of which have come down markedly over time despite the overall high rate environment and being only slightly higher than the Federal Reserve's benchmark interest rate. Our average margin is now down to just over 3% from 4.6% at the beginning of this year. And as I mentioned, we have fully hedged our floating rate exposure with a 0.75% interest floating rate cap. On the lower left, you will see that the trading liquidity in our stock, while somewhat reduced in recent months as the microenvironment has shifted, remains far in excess of levels as recently as the end of 2020, driven by material increase in our public float. With that, I will turn the call over to Tom.

Thanks, Stasos. As usual, and for the benefit of listeners who are new to GSL, slide 12 is intended to highlight the ship sizes on which our business is focused, which will help put the subsequent slides in context. GSL is focused on mid-sized and smaller ships, which is shorthand for ships ranging from about 2,000 TU up to about 10,000 TU, which is effectively the liquid charter market. The top map on this slide on the left shows the deployment of quote-unquote our ship's hour sizes of ship, i.e. ships under 10,000 TEU, and emphasizes their operational flexibility, which is especially valuable in uncertain times. As you can see, they're deployed everywhere. The bottom map, on the other hand, shows where the big ships, i.e. those larger than 10,000 TEU, are deployed, which tends to be on the east-west main lane or arterial trades, where the cargo volumes and shoreside infrastructure can support them. And it's important to note that over 70%, that's 7-0% of global containerized trade volumes are actually moved outside the main lanes in the north-south regional and intermediate trades served by ships such as ours. In his opening remarks, George pointed to the increasingly challenging macro and geopolitical outlook that we're all currently facing and the corresponding deterioration in consumer sentiment. Clearly, our crystal ball is no better than anyone else's on how these factors will ultimately play out. So, as usual, we prefer to focus on the supply side where we do have forward visibility and against which investors and others can set containerized trade or GDP growth projections as they feel appropriate. Slide 13 shows the metrics that tend to be used as a measure of supply side tension. The top chart shows idle capacity, which at quarter end was around 1%, which is broadly where it's been for about the last two years. The bottom chart tells a similar story. Container ship recycling, scrapping, was almost non-existent for container ships in 2021 and fell to zero for the first nine months of 2022, although I would note that a small number of ships have subsequently been scrapped. So, as at September 30th, supply side tension was still positive, which means that the starting position from which the industry faces whatever challenges are coming down the pipe is one of supportive fundamentals, at least from the supply side in the segments we're focused upon. Slide 14 looks at the order book. Here you can see on the left the composition of the order book by size segment, covering deliveries scheduled to take place all the way through 2025. Undeniably, the order book has expanded during the course of the last 18 months or so, reaching an overall order book to fleet ratio of 29.6% at the end of September. However, it continues to be heavily skewed towards the big ships, over 10,000 TEU, for which the ratio is 51.4%. Meanwhile, our focus segments of 2,000 to 10,000 TEU, which are highlighted in the red box, have a significantly lower ratio of a little over 15, that's 1.5%. And there are two important points to keep in mind when assessing the order book. The first is that the midsize and smaller container ship fleet is aging. As you can see from the chart on the right, if scrapping were to continue to be deferred, by the end of 2025, a substantial slice of the sub-10,000 TEU capacity currently on the water, a little over 1.5 million TEUs worth, would be at least 25 years old and candidates for the recycling yards. Net this out against the total order book of sub 10,000 TEU vessels due to be delivered through the end of 2025, and you would get implied net growth in these sizes of just 5.9%, which itself would be spread out over the coming three plus years. The second is that 2023, which is now only two months away, marks the implementation of new decarbonization regulations, which, according to growing industry consensus, is expected to cause a slowing down of the global fleet to reduce emissions, thus reducing effective supply. I'll come back to this important point in a couple of slides' time. In the meantime, let's look at slide 15, the charter market. and as you can see from the chart the charter market continued its spectacular rise through the first few months of 2022 plateaued through the second quarter and much of the third and then fell quite sharply furthermore charter durations are currently shortening with recent fixtures of only a few months and the forward fixture market currently is effectively on hold having said all that availability of ships in the charter market remains very limited, as many of the ships that otherwise would have come into the market in recent months had already been forward fixed or extended before coming open. This means that data for vessels in the actual charter market is very thin, and the rates and terms shown are thus largely theoretical, hence the large red question mark on the chart. And this, let's call it health warning, is particularly relevant to the indicative term charter rates shown to the right of this slide. They are very much theoretical and illustrative. The sharp fall in charter rate in the charter market rate index seems at odds with the supply side fundamentals shown on the earlier slide. This apparent disconnect may be explained by overwhelmingly negative macro sentiment compounding the lack of liquidity in the charter market and is perhaps exaggerating the downward correction of rates in the near term. though this remains to be seen. Logically, downward pressure on earnings and negative sentiment will put downward pressure on asset values. But if hard data on charter fixtures is thin, then hard data on sale and purchase transactions, and thus on values, is currently even thinner. Anyway, we will have better visibility in due course, although probably not until the new year and possibly not even until after Chinese New Year. but few would dispute that a normalization of charter market rates is currently in progress. And that's a neat segue to slide 16, which provides an update on decarbonization, which is expected to actually have a favorable impact on supply-side fundamentals over time. Working through the slide, in the top box is a snapshot of the evolving regulatory environment. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but addresses the regulations which are most imminent and on which there is currently most clarity. Let's start with EEXI, which is the Energy Efficiency Existing Ship Index. This is tied to a ship's technical characteristics and is binary in nature, so it's pass or fail. A non-EEXI compliant ship will not be permitted to trade past its first annual IAPP survey, which is an air pollution survey, after January 1, 2023. Next is CII, the Carbon Intensity Indicator. This is an operating measure and is to be determined annually on a backward-looking basis by the ship's actual operating performance. CII is calculated as a function of actual CO2 emissions divided by vessel dead weight times distance traveled with some correction factors thrown in for good measure. The first assessments will be performed in 2024 based on 2023 data with CII ratings ranging from A to E. E-rated ships, all those rated D for three years in a row, will require corrective actions. And it's worth noting that CII parameters will tighten progressively over time. Next up is EU ETS, the European Union Emissions Trading System. This will attribute a cost to greenhouse gas emissions from ships trading to, from, or within the EU. The mechanism and timing for the incorporation of shipping under EU ETS is still under review. But ratification and implementation is expected to be within the comparatively near term. So we will keep you posted on that front in due course. In the next box, we have laid out some of the high-level implications of decarbonization regulations expected for the global container ship fleet. These are, firstly, reduced operating speeds to reduce emissions. Vessel operating speed has a disproportionate impact on CO2 emissions. as the relationship between speed and fuel consumption, and thus emissions, is close to logarithmic. An important byproduct of slowing the global fleet down is a reduction in effective supply. And to illustrate, a reduction in average operating speed of the global fleet of just one knot, one nautical mile per hour, is estimated to reduce effective supply by around 6%. The two largest liner operators, MSC and Maersk, have recently been reported as estimating that effective capacity, effective supply reductions, could be of the order of 10% and between 5% and 15%, respectively. Secondly, vessel operations will be optimized for the CII algorithm and ratings. In addition to slowing ships down, efforts will be made to improve their operational efficiency, and to minimize unproductive time such as waiting for births at terminals. So an overall smoothing of operations and increased incentive to utilize well-specified, fuel-efficient, and well-maintained ships. And thirdly, increasing investments will be made in energy-saving technologies and retrofits in developing green, or in the near term, greener fuels and propulsion, and in carbon capture and mitigation technologies. With all of that said, what are the actions that we are taking to maintain and to hopefully improve the commercial positioning of the GSL fleet in a decarbonizing world? Clearly, our first priority is to ensure regulatory compliance. For EXI, this is relatively straightforward. When needed, we're installing engine power limiters, or EPLs, on our ships at a cost of under $100,000. per ship, which will ensure compliance. CII, on the other hand, is a little more complex, as it is determined not only by the efficiency of the underlying ship, but also, I would say actually primarily, in fact, by how the ship is operated by the charterer. Consequently, we are applying technologies and protocols to enhance cooperation between owners and charterers to facilitate CII-optimized vessel operations. Indeed, cooperation and partnership between owners and operators will be key to successful decarbonization. And we're well positioned in this respect as a partnership approach with our charterers has long underpinned the GSL business model and strategy. Consistent with this approach, we're also retrofitting energy-saving technologies, or ESTs, to our ships. subject to commercial agreement and in cooperation with the charterers. These agreements are commercially sensitive, as you may imagine, and vary on a case-by-case basis, but the underlying rationale is that we will only invest in ESTs that will enhance the value and earnings of the corresponding ship. That's the crux of it, but for those of you who would like to know more, may I refer you to the climate strategy section of our latest ESG report, which is available on our corporate website. And with that, I'll turn the call back to George to wrap up. George.

Thank you, Tom. I will provide a brief summary, and then we would be happy to take your questions. With our recently signed long-term forward fixtures, we have excellent contract cover of over $2.2 billion over an average of 2.9 years, fully covering our debt service, CAPEX, and sustainable dividends through at least 2023, even before the impact of any further charter renewals. We have built a very strong balance sheet, rated double B stable and B-1 positive by Standard & Poor's and Moody's, respectively. We have proven diversified access to capital, most recently through a successful U.S. private placement and a very attractive cost of debt. We have a very high-quality fleet of high-refer, mid-sized post-Panamax and smaller container ships, which play a critical role for our line of customers. Idle capacity remains very low in the global fleet and scrapping has only just begun at the margins, following a complete stop for an extended period, suggesting a backlog of aging vessels that would likely be scrapped in the down market. Due to this and to the high concentration of ordering activity in the very largest vessels, we expect net fleet growth in our fleet sizes to actually be fairly negligible and perhaps negative, on the effective basis from 2023. There is no question that macro headwinds and negative sentiment are causing an normalization from the extraordinary conditions in recent quarters in terms of freight rates, charter rates and asset values. That being said, given the extremely limited number of ships that are presently in the charter market, it remains to be seen whether the current steep declines are in fact broadly representative. and it is worth noting that line operators are still forecasting full year 2022 to be extraordinarily profitable for them. Finally, our capital allocation is focused on business resilience and on maximizing long-term value for shareholders. Through well-timed acquisitions and contracting on a long-term basis, we are well positioned to sustain the recent step change in our earnings. Our dividend is both attractive and sustainable. and we continue to build cash liquidity for resilience, optionality, and to proactively address the challenges and opportunities of decarbonization. With that, we would be happy to take your questions.

The floor is now open for your questions. To ask a question at this time, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. If at any point you would like to withdraw from the queue, please press star 1 again. You will be provided the opportunity to ask one question in one further follow-up question. We will take a moment to render our roster. Your first question comes from the line of Amit Malhotra from Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.

Hey, good afternoon, gentlemen. This is Chris Robertson on for a minute. Thanks for taking our questions. Hi, Chris. No problem. I just wanted to ask, you mentioned the backlog of potential scrapping candidates. So do you have a sense of how much bottlenecking could be there in terms of the space that's available at the breaker yards? I'm just trying to get a sense of how much of that scrap capacity could actually be absorbed by the yards in any given point in time.

Yeah, that's a good question.

Chris. I would say that, at least for us, it's a comparatively academic one, fortunately, because even our older ships are contracted on charters by and large. But you raise a very reasonable point. I think the other thing that we have to keep in mind is that with the decarbonization regulations, which are going to tighten over time, I think both we and the industry as a whole are expecting the fleet to slow down. So it's quite difficult to know how much excess capacity, quote unquote, is needed to be scrapped out in any case. So sorry, I can't give you a clearer steer than that.

No problem. My second question is just on looking at the current share price. How are you guys thinking about valuation in the context of the remaining share repurchase authorization program? And when it comes to kind of the current market sentiment, are you taking more of a cautious approach in building cash on the balance sheet? Or what's the appetite for secondhand acquisitions in this counter-cyclical market?

Yeah, I'll try to answer that, Chris, and Ian can jump in. First of all, we are taking a cautious approach always. That's why we have not purchased any chips for a long time. as prices we felt were not making a lot of sense for us. Now, yes, prices are coming down. Opportunities will arise. We're not in any hurry to grab them. We want to see where the market will stabilize and settle. But it is very important for a company entering in a market like this to have a lot of cash on the side for all sorts of purposes. We are building our cash position, naturally, which is the right thing to do for any company. And we're sitting still and observing the market and the opportunities. Now, with respect to buyback, it's still in our book, as it has been. We have done buybacks last quarter, and we have still the authorization open, and we're looking at it as well. Okay.

Yeah, that's clear. Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Omar Nocta from Jefferies. Your line is open.

Thank you. Hey, guys. Good afternoon. I wanted to ask broadly just about the market. And, Tom, I think you outlined things very well, especially in terms of, you know, what's going on in the charter markets. We've obviously seen a slowdown here over the past few months. And even as things were slowing down, you were able to secure some, I guess, 10, 11 forward contracts, a good race. But just in general, how would you characterize the actual conversations you're having with your liner customers? Are they still interested in discussing contracting eco-ships, and maybe they're just taking a step back from older tonnage? How would you frame the market just in general in terms of your customers and how they're viewing the different types of assets out there?

Sure. Omar, thanks for the question. I'll try and answer this, and I'm sure George will have some views as well. But I think what's going on at the moment is that tactically the lines are taking a little bit of a wait and see approach. So no one's rushing in to fix chips, be they eco or existing tonnage. And part of that is that there's very little liquidity. There are very few ships coming open in the market at the moment. So it's going to be, I think... I'm sorry for deflecting the question. I would say it's going to be really only in two or three months' time that we'll have a little bit more clarity on how the market is shaping up and where the demand for vessels lies. And one of the principal considerations there is the decarbonization regulation. Everyone has tried to model out what the implications of that are going to be, but I think the proof is always ultimately in the pudding. So we'll have to see how that has an impact early next year. So at the moment, tactical, wait and see, taking ships on comparatively short terms, and I would say that broadly characterizes it. George, would you agree?

Yeah, and I would just add to that that, you know, liner companies being businessmen, they want to take the best deal for them. And when they see that the market is softening, And softening fast, actually, what we have seen was quite a substantial drop very quickly. No one is willing to commit until they see where the market is going to set. Because they might, you know, whatever you charter today, tomorrow might be expensive. So they want to see where the demand supply will balance. And then they will come into the market. And this has happened recently. I mean, there's an increase of fixtures in the last five weeks. we had in the first three weeks less fixtures and now have a bit more fixtures. So the liner companies are coming into the market seeing that the rates have bottomed out in a way so that they're going to take their needs. I mean, they do need ships, there's no doubt. They continuously need ships. It's just an opportunistic, I think, approach that the liner companies have taken with the opportunity of, you know, concluding, you know, contracting ships at lower rates if they wait a bit. It always happens. The same happens on the way up. Line companies are out there to take ships and owners are shy away from doing this so that in the anticipation that the rates are going up, so you charter a ship tomorrow, it's better than what you've chartered today. It's the same thing.

Got it. Thanks for that color, George and Tom. And just as a follow-up, you were fairly acquisitive in the early stages of the cycle, buying ships fairly cheaply, I'd say, and then you've been harvesting the cash since. We've got a nice cash position, low leverage, and a pretty sizable backlog. When it's time to start focusing on acquiring tonnage again, how do you think about that in terms of what you actually buy? Are you agnostic to whether they're eco-vessels or older ships Tom, you mentioned in your opening remarks, it's really just about the residual value. Does that hold in this context of looking at newer ships versus older ships?

In containers, it's more than newer or younger. It's the specifications of the ship because the container ships have very different specifications between them. We always focus on the highest level of commercial characteristics of ships. So we prefer the ships that are the first choice of charters, whether these fall within the eco type or the classic type. Let's not forget that the container fleet, it's 80% almost non-eco type. So it's not like a fleet where it's 50-50 or so. What is important for charters really, it's the commercial characteristics of the ship. For example, if the ship has a very high reefer capacity, that's a very positive. If the ships can take a lot of loaded cargo, they have a high loading capacity, homogeneous loading, what we call it in our industry, so the stability of the ship is high, so it can take a lot of loaded, and stuff like that.

Just to add to that, Omar, I would just like to clarify that we're not looking at new buildings. So we will continue to focus upon existing ships that would be immediately accretive acquisitions, were we to make such acquisitions. And we would be focusing upon midlife ships. And as George said, in the segments upon which we're focused, because it's a set of segments that have been underinvested structurally over a number of years, the proportion of quote-unquote eco-ships in the midsize and smaller segments is rather limited anyway, so it's not as important, let's say, as it would be if one were to focus upon bigger ships. And there, we always like deals that have visibility on cash flows, can be written down to modest residuals with upside optionality thereafter. So, you know, we're not changing the recipe for our cooking.

Okay, very good. Thanks, Tom. Thanks, George. I'll pass it over.

If you previously indicated that you would like to ask a question and would still like to do so, please indicate your interest again as some questions appear to have dropped away. Our next question comes from the line of Liam Burke from B. Riley. Your line is open. All right. Thank you.

That was everybody today.

We're good. Thanks, Liam.

What about you? Good. I'm doing just fine. Thank you. Yeah, interesting. If you lay out your operating revenues and break it down between the amortization of charter agreements, it really highlights your growth in TCE revenues. How long is it going to take for that amortization to run through the income statement? Sorry, I didn't mean that. I think that's Ian coughing about to say. Sorry, Ian, I apologize for that.

No, your question was just so fantastic, Liam. In fact, so fantastic. Could you repeat it?

Anyway, the amortization of the charter agreements that have been running through the income statement for a few years now, beginning to run down. But, I mean, if you look at it on a year-over-year basis, you really muted the growth of your TCE revenues on an apples-to-apples basis. How long is it going to take for this amortization to run its course best?

The honest answer is I'm not sure. Tasos may know. I mean, it's non-cash as well. And we adjust for that when we come up with EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA. But you're right, over time, that credit, the amortization of the liability does deteriorate. And the charters associated with acquisitions that we made in 2021 Most of those charters I'm thinking of here were relatively short, so I would imagine that in the not-too-distant future, that item will disappear.

Okay. And getting back to acquisitions, scrapping, as Tom laid out, is fairly non-existent. Is there any crossover between potential scrap vessels when you start looking at acquisitions again and how you are able to squeeze additional economic value out of those older assets?

Well, I'll have a crack at answering that. I mean, this ties in again, Liam, with we're trying to work very closely with our charterers to – enhance existing ships that are on charters to them, including older ships where the specifications are attractive enough, in such a way as to ensure that those ships remain sticky, let's say, on those charters and get renewed with those charterers. So I think there is going to be a shaking out potentially of the fleet, depending upon the degree to which the global fleet has to slow down, which we think is going to be significant, and any excess vessels that are no longer needed to the global fleet in there. There will be a differentiation, I think, between those vessels that are well-specified and enhanced for more efficient operation and those that are less so. I don't know if that addresses your question. No, that's fine.

No, that's fine. Thank you.

Your final question comes from the line of Frode Morgadel. from Clarkson Securities. Your line is open.

Thank you. Hi, guys. Hi, Frodo. Hey, Frodo.

You mentioned the opportunities. What kind of opportunities are you looking for, hoping for? Are you looking at, like, distressed opportunities, or are these, let's call it more normal, say, leaseback opportunities? transactions that are, let's say, more reasonably priced?

Yeah, I will tell you what, in this market, I wouldn't expect that many distress by the real meaning of it as, you know, owners have been making money in the last couple of years. There are two types of opportunities out there. They're either selling leasebacks, which is something we have been always doing throughout the years. And these are not market related, really. This is just a transaction where it's a cash flow and residual value at the end. And then there are the market deals where you say some owner is willing to sell a fleet or a single ship or a couple of ships at where the values of the ships are. Now, We do have a lot of inside deals and we always had that don't come into the market and what we call the market deals and we buy those ships when we feel that the level of acquisition of the ship makes sense for us and the downside risk is minimal when the upside optionality is substantial. We have done a lot of these deals. They all work perfectly. Sometimes they give you a very high return. Sometimes they give you a more reasonable good return. It very much depends on how the market moves away from the point of acquisition onwards. But this is the type of deal that you always do in shipping as long as the entry point, the entry price is right.

Yeah, sure.

Final question I have is there's a lot of question on let's call it counterparty risk. How should investors think about that in relation to let's say the resilience of the backlog?

Well I will let Ian also talk about that because he has been having this question over the years but I would say that the counterparties in container shipping, all the liner companies, they are in the best shape they have ever been historically, financially. And actually, and more than that. So they're all, I would probably say, net debt zero and lots of cash in addition to that on the side. So we're not worried about our counterparties because we also have only first-class names in our portfolio. But Ian, you can also add what your experience has been even in the difficult years when things were completely different.

Yeah, not a great deal to add, George. We have industry standard charter contracts. They're non-cancelable. We only deal with... They're really good names. We've never had a bad debt in GSL. It kind of doesn't happen in our industry by and large anyway. Liner companies are desperate for these ships. They need the chartered fleets to run their scheduled services without the ships. They don't have services, so it's in their own interests to behave properly. And as George said, they're in the best financial shape they've probably ever been in. So we're not at all complacent about it, but it doesn't keep us awake at night. And the last point I'll make is that we've got very strong relationships with all of our customers as well, so we're very careful with whom we contract. Sure.

Fair enough. Thank you very much.

Your final question comes from The line from Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.

Hey, thanks. I just had one final follow-up question. This is Chris again. On slide 23, you guys did a good job laying out the survey dry docking CapEx as well as ballast water treatment systems and upgrade. Can you comment as to what the other CapEx category is, the 4.6 and 4.7 million in 22 and 23 respectively? And does that add to the depreciable value of the assets?

Usually we have expenses that are related with some upgrades that have to do with commercial. And it's been reflected, all these upgrades and the other CAPEX, mainly to the charter rates that we are taking. Or there are some upgrades on a smaller scale which are regulatory to have.

I don't know if that's okay with you and you are covered.

That does conclude today's questions. I would now like to turn the call over to Ian Weber, CEO.

Thank you very much. Thank you all for listening. Thank you for your questions. We look forward to providing you with a further update on GSL and the container shipping market for fourth quarter earnings, which will be next year in 2023. Thanks very much.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This does conclude today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.