Navios Maritime Holdings Inc.

Thank you for joining us for Navios Maritime Partners First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. With us today from the company are Chairwoman and CEO, Ms. Angeliki Frangou, Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Stratos De Cipris, and Chief Financial Officer, Mrs. Eretz-Ironi, and Vice Chairman, Mr. Ted Petron. As a reminder, this conference call is being webcast. To access the webcast, please go to the investor section of Navios Partners' website at www.navios-mlp.com. You'll see the webcasting link in the middle of the page and a copy of the presentation referenced in today's earnings conference call will also be found there. Now, I will review the Safe Harbor Statement. This conference call could contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 about Navin's partners. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts. Such forward-looking statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of Navin's partners' management and are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Such risks are more fully discussed in Navin's partners' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The information set forth herein should be understood in light of such risks. Now, this partner does not assume any obligation to obtain the information contained in this conference call. The agenda for today's call is as follows. First, Ms. Farmer will offer opening remarks. Next, Mr. Recipes will give an overview of Navier's Partners segment data. Next, Ms. Chironi will give an overview of Navier's Partners financial results. Then, Mr. Pedron will provide an industry overview. And lastly, we'll open the call to take questions. Now, I turn the call over to Navier's Partners Chairwoman and CEO, Ms. Angeliki Frambois. Angeliki?

Good morning to all of you joining us on today's call. I am pleased with the results for the first quarter of 2024. For the quarter, we reported revenue of $318.6 million and net income of $73.4 million. Earnings per common unit was $2.38. In the first quarter of 2024, regional conflict, particularly in the Middle East, continued to affect transportation. This can be seen in the material reduction in transit through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. In addition, the U.S. and European economies are managing inflationary pressures and are generally healthy, with Europe rebounding after a period of softness. As a result of these and other factors, this was Navios Partners' strongest first quarter financial performance ever. We remain cautious as many of the factors driving this robust maritime environment can change quickly should conflict-driven inefficiencies clear and all economies suffer from a further wave of inflation. As usual, we continue to execute on our strategic initiatives by focusing on things that we can control, such as reducing leverage and modernizing our energy-efficient fleet. I would also note that we continue to take long-term cover where available, as rates are around or exceeding long-term averages. For example, we recently chartered out a Cape-sized vessel for 2.9 years, almost three years, at a net daily rate of $28,500. Please turn to slide 7. Nautilus Partners is a leading publicly listed shipping company diversified in 15 asset classes in three sectors. We have $318.4 million of cash in our balance sheet. For sales, here today, we sold four vessels, generating 92.6 million gross sales proceeds, of which 9.8 million of sales was completed in the first quarter of 2024. $82.8 million of sales will be completed in the second quarter of 2024. For acquisitions, year-to-date, we spent $245.7 million acquiring six vessels. We acquired two new buildings, scrubber-fitted Afromax LR2 tankers for $129.1 million. We also acquired Four Japanese-built Kamsa Maxis previously chartered in for $116.6 million. As for deliveries, we took delivery of three previously announced new building vessels with employment. Two are 5,300 TEU container ships fixed for an average rate of $37,050 net per day for 5.2 years, and one is an Aflamax LR2 tanker fixed at 26,366 net per day for five years. We continue to add to our contract backlog. This quarter, we added $211.2 million in contracted revenue. Our operating cash flow potentially remains strong. For the last nine months, 2024, we estimate to have 53.3 million of contracted revenue in excess of cash costs while having 13,820 open or index days. Turn to slide eight. On this slide, we provide an overview of our execution in terms of selected metrics we feel are important. As you can see, our fleet remains the same size today as it was in year end 2022, with all of the purchases and sales effectively netted each other out. Not accidentally, our fleet age remains about the same. We maximize energy efficiency by maintaining a fleet of U3 vessels with the latest technology while we patiently await the development of more carbon-neutral technologies. In addition, as you can see from the vessel value, the steel value of our fleet has improved by about 13% from the end of 2023. Given the recent overall strength of the market, each segment has performed well, with the container ship segment increasing the most. I would also note that these three values do not give any consideration to our contract backlog, which today is about $3.3 billion. With a stable and performing fleet, our fleet metrics are strong. Our adjusted EBITDA is up 6% over the first quarter of 2023 and 30% over the first quarter of 2022. Since year-end 2022, we have increased our cash balance by 82% to $318 million. Our current net leverage is 34%, an improvement of 420 basis points over year-end 2023. Therefore, we are the gliding path to a target net leverage range of 20-25%. I now turn the presentation over to Mr. Stratos Tsipris, Navios Partners Chief Operating Officer. Stratos?

Thank you, Angeliki, and good morning all. Please turn to slide 9, which details our operating free cash flow potential for the remaining nine months of 2024. We have fixed 67% of our available days at an average rate of $25,874 net per day. This contracted revenue exceeds our total cash expense by 53.3 million, and we also have 13,820 remaining open or index-linked days that could provide potential additional free cash flow. On the right side of the slide, we provide our 42,112 available days by vessel type, so you can perform your own sensitivity analysis. However, whatever number used, we should develop substantial cash flow for the remaining nine months of 2024. Please turn to slide 10. We are always renewing the fleet so that we maintain a young profile. It is part of our strategy to reduce our carbon footprint by modernizing our fleet, benefiting from newer technologies and ecovessels with greener characteristics. During 2024, we get delivery of three vessels, two 5,300 TU container ships. Both started out for an average of 5.2 years at an average net daily rate of $37,050 net per day, and one LR2 Aframax vessel, which has been chartered out for five years at $26,366 net per day. The contracted revenue for the three vessels delivered amounts to approximately $190 million. Following these deliveries, we have $1.6 billion remaining investment in 26 new building vessels delivering to our fleet through 2027. In container ships, we have nine vessels to be delivered with a total acquisition price of approximately 672 million. We have mitigated this risk with long-term credit-worthy charters, generating about 0.9 billion in revenue over a 6.8-year average charter duration. In the tanker space, we acquired 17 vessels for a total price of approximately 950 million. we chartered out 11 of these vessels for an average period of five years, generating revenues of about half a billion. We have also been opportunistically replacing older vessels. In 2024, we have sold four vessels with an average age of 17.7 years for 92.6 million. At the same time, we exercised the purchase option on four chartered in Japanese-built Kamsar Maxis with an average age of 7.6 years for a total price of 116.6 million. Moving to slide 11, we continue to secure long-term employment for our fleet. In 2024, we have created about 210 million additional contracted revenue. Approximately 130 million comes from our tanker fleet, about 41.5 million from three container ships, and 40 million comes from our dry bulk fleet. Our total contracted revenue amounts to 3.3 billion. 1.2 billion relates to our target fleet, 0.4 billion relates to our dry bulk fleet, and 1.7 billion relates to our container ships. Charters are extending through 2037 with a diverse group of quality counterparts. About 50% of our contracted revenue is expected to be earned in the next two and a half years. I now pass the call to Eri Cironi, our CFO, which will take you through the financial highlights. Eri?