Global Ship Lease, Inc.

Thank you for standing by. My name is Dee and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Global Shipley's third quarter 2024 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 followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Tom Lister, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Global Ship Lease third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. You can find the slides that accompany today's presentation on our website at www.globalshiplease.com. As usual, slides two and three 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 would also like to direct your attention to the risk factors section of our most recent annual report on our 2023 Form 20F, which was filed in March 2024. You can find the form on our website or on 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. The 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 usually refer to the earnings release that we issued this morning, which is also available on our website. I'm joined today by our Executive Chairman, George Yeroukos, and our Chief Financial Officer, Tasos Tsaroupoulos. George will begin the call with a high-level commentary on GSL and our industry, and then Tasos 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 answer your questions. So, turning now to slide four, I'll pass the call over to George. George.

Thank you, Tom, and good morning, afternoon, or evening to all of you joining us today. Through the third quarter, the dynamics driving the container ship sector have remained largely consistent with prior quarters. heightened geopolitical issues, and uncertainly persist, particularly around the Red Sea. The last numbers of ships continue to transit around the Cape of Good Hope, adding further ton-mile demand to an already tight market. Now, on the back of this, we have been building forward contract cover and locking in attractive charter rates. In the first nine months of the year, we added approximately 600 million in contracted revenues, almost 200 million of which in the third quarter. And, unusually as now is typically the low season, that positive momentum has continued into Q4. We have also remained disciplined and opportunistic financially, recently completing a 300 million refinancing that brings our average cost of debt to below 4%, reducing break-evens and further strengthening both our resilience through the cycle and our competitiveness. Our robust corporate credit ratings reflect the strength of our balance sheet and forward prospects. Now, on the basis of this success, we're pleased to have introduced a supplemental dividend in addition to our regular sustainable quarterly dividend, bringing our annualized dividend to $1.8 per share. Zooming out, I think it is worthwhile to give some larger context and what this all means for you as investors. Over the last five years, our total shareholder return is greater than 350%. And because we offer a stable, liquid, readily investable platform through the cycle, an opportunistic investor buying at a cyclical low in 2020 and selling in June 2024 had the potential to realize a total shareholder return of almost 1,300%. And I can tell you that capitalizing on the cycle by buying and selling shares is a lot quicker and easier to do than buying and selling ships. We invest in and operate a business on a through-the-cycle basis, and we make it possible for investors to participate for the time horizon that best fits their needs. We are proud to have made GSL a profitable investment for investors of all kinds over a multi-year period. By continuing to charter our existing fleet, preserving the optionality to invest in fleet renewal and growth when the time and terms are right, paying an attractive dividend, maintaining a resilient financial position, and staying nimble and dynamic in our capital allocation, we are working to build on our success and continue creating value for our shareholders. With that, I will turn the call back to Tom.