Global Ship Lease, Inc.

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 Thomas Lister, the CEO of Global Lease, please go ahead.

Thank you. Hello everyone and welcome to the Global Ship Lease first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. You can find the slides that accompanies today's presentation on our website at .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 2024 form 20F, which was filed in March 2025. You can find the form on our website or on the SECs. 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 as usual today by our executive chairman, George Youroukos, and by our chief financial officer, Tasos Psaropoulos. George will begin the call with high level commentary on GSL and our industry, and then Tasos and I will take you through our recent activity, quarterly results in financials and the current market environment. After that, we'll be very pleased to answer your questions. So turning now to slide four, I'll pass the call over to George.

Thank you, Tom, and good morning, afternoon, or evening to all of you joining us today. In the face of unprecedented levels of macro uncertainty, the container ship charter market has remained exceptionally tight through the opening months of 2025. Even as the headline freight rates and by our liner customers continue to normalize, the fundamental need for mid-sized and smaller container ships has remained very strong, with essentially zero idle capacity in a global system. Against that backdrop, we added a further 352 million of contracted revenues in the first quarter, bringing our 2025 contract cover to 93% and 2026 cover to 75%, which provides good insulation against uncertainty. More recently, tariffs and other proposed non-tariff barriers to trade have further complicated the microeconomic picture. Tom will discuss this more later, but the situation remains very fluid, and it is too early to speculate on longer term ramifications. Although we are encouraged by the recent apparent de-escalation in trade tensions and rhetoric. In any case, from what we have seen so far, it seems likely that the impact of tariffs and other trade barriers will be uneven across different segments of the industry. For example, we're beginning to see early data that container flows displaced from China-US routes, and in some cases leading to notable increases in volumes in smaller trades, that more heavily utilize mid-sized and smaller ships of the kind that GSA loans. Now, in addition to chartering, we have opportunistically monetized some of our older ships by selling them at cyclically attractive prices to bolster our dry powder for investment and fleet renewal. We have proven our patience and discipline over many years, but we must also ensure that we are in a position to act quickly when the time and conditions are right. In complex and fast moving times, optionality is key. Meanwhile, our balance sheet remains in excellent condition, and we have increased our return of capital to shareholders by growing our annualized dividend to $2.10 per share, starting this quarter and up 40% on this time last year. In sum, by strengthening our balance sheet and locking in extensive contract cover, we have built GSL to maximize optionality, both to take advantage of the natural cyclicality of our industry and also to ensure that we can remain strong for the long term in any market conditions. Both as a company and as an investment proposition, GSL has enjoyed a very strong multi-year run, and we look forward to sustain and build on that momentum in the years ahead. With that, I will turn the call back to Tom.