Navios Maritime Partners LP

Thank you for joining us for Navios Maritime Partners first quarter 2022 earnings conference call. With us today from the company, our chairwoman and CEO, Ms. Angeliki Frangou, Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Stratos Desypris, Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Eri Tsironi, and Executive Vice President, Business Development, Mr. Georgios Akhniotis. As a reminder, this conference call is being webcast. To access the webcast, please go to the investor section of the Navios Partners website at www.mavius-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 Mavius Partners. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts. Such forward-looking statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of NAVIUS 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 NAVIUS Partners filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The information set forth herein should be understood in light of such risks. NAVIUS Partners does not assume any obligation to update the information contained in this conference call. The agenda for today's call is as follows. First, Ms. Frangou will offer opening remarks. Next, Mr. Desypris will provide a Navios Partners operational and fleet update overview. Next, Ms. Tsironi will give an overview of Navios Partners financial results. Then, Mr. Akhniotis will provide an industry overview. And lastly, we'll open the call to take questions. Now, I turn the call over to Navios Partners Chairwoman and CEO, Ms. Angeliki Frangou. Angeliki?

Thank you, Daniela, and good morning to all of you joining us on today's call. I am pleased with the results for the first quarter of 2022. During the first quarter, Navios Partners recorded revenue of $236.6 million, EBITDA of $126.1 million, and net income of $85.7 million, or $2.78 per common unit. Sadly, Ukraine is being ravaged by a war in its third month with significant cost in human lives. The war is also having an impact on global seaborn commodity trade. Ukraine and Russia are significant exporters of grain and other mineral commodities. Russia also exported oil, gas and coal. Sanctions in the war have resulted in the displacement of those exports by other commodities being transported over longer distances. thereby adding to Don Miles. The situation is fluid and we have no crystal ball to understand how this will evolve. In the meantime, governments and companies are quick to act to satisfy their short-term needs as they consider long-term policy. Please turn to slide 3. In 2281, we reimagine the public shipping company. Today, NMM is one of the leading U.S. publicly listed shipping companies with an asset base diversified across 16 vessel types in three segments, servicing more than 10 end markets. About one-third of our fleet operates in each dry bulk, container ship, and tiger segments, and we believe that this structure offers a stronger, more resilient entity to our stakeholders with a continuous opportunity for a creative growth. As previously announced, this quarter we agreed to acquire four Aframaxis LR2 tankers on the back of charter commitments from an investment-grade counterparty. Through this transaction, we added a new segment with reduced risk and excellent long-term prospects. Slide 4. present some recent segment data. An MM fleet of 150 vessels has an average age of 9.5 years and a loan-to value of 28.5%. The fleet has 4.1 billion of net equity value. Moreover, we have 2.8 billion in contracted revenue. Over approximately 35,500 available days for the remaining nine months of 2022, Almost half are exposed to market rates. This provides upside through the ongoing recovery in charter rates in the dry and tanker markets. Slide 5 summarizes a few basic principles behind the diversified platform. Number one, we can optimize chartering. In segments offering attractive returns, we can enter into period charters while in other segments we can be patient. Second, segments have some counter-cyclicality built in. This creates the opportunity of redeploying the strongest flow earned from performing segments into asset purchases in underperforming segments, where we believe attractive acquisition opportunities exist. Third, asset values themselves can be volatile. Leverage rates remain low only if asset values cooperate. We believe that by diversifying our asset base, the balance sheet impact of asset value volatility will be muted. Consequently, our balance sheet strength will be partially based on this diversity. I note that we are in a rising interest rate environment globally, as I will discuss In the moment, we have been working at securing fixed-rate financing and reducing the margin of debt from about 300 basis points to about 200 basis points. We see the cost of debt increasing, which provides yet another reason to be conservative with the amount of debt on our balance sheet. On slide 6, We will drill down how we optimize our chartering. As you can see from the chart on the top right, the container segment is enjoying historically high charter rates. Not surprisingly, we have fixed our container fleet on long-term charters with almost 100% of our available container ship days fixed for the remaining nine months of 2022. This reduces market and residual risk for these vessels. We manage the credit risk of the long-term charter independently to ensure that we are not simply trading one risk for another. In our dry bulk segment, we benefit from a market where rates are recovering to their historical 20-year averages. We have fixed only 24% of our available dry bulk fleet days for the remaining nine months of 2022, and we have opted to keep 76% of our available days exposed to market rates to capture any available upside. Our chartering strategy also allows us to fix a drive-back fleet on longer-term charters when rates do improve. Lastly, we have 53% of our available tanker days fixed, many with favorable legacy charters. We anticipate running this fleet on market rates until healthy rates allow us to consider period charges. We expect our target fleet will generate strong returns once the market recovers. As I mentioned, we not only have the luxury of waiting for this recovery, but also extend into subsectors such as the Afromax LR2, given the strength of our other segments. Slide 7 details our approach to capturing segment opportunity and our approach towards pairing our S&P activity with sector fund amendments. NMM made $1.3 billion investment in 22 new-build investors that will deliver to our fleet through the first quarter of 2025. We leverage the strength of the container market. First, we sold to 16-year-old vessels for $220 million. And second, we had a $620 million investment in 10 new 5,300 TEU container ships by entering into long-term credit-worthy charters for these vessels. These 10 container ships will earn about $710 million in contracted revenue for 5.2 years duration of the related charters. and are currently worth about 20% more than our older prices. We also engage in a routine and continuous management of our fleet age profile in the dry bulk and tanker space. Seven dry bulk and five tanker vessels were acquired at attractive prices. In our dry bulk segment, NMM made $332 million investment in seven new buildings ordered when vessel values were challenged in the first half of 2021. These results are also worth about 20% more today. Slide 8 reviews our recent developments. In the first quarter of 2022, NMM generated $236.6 million in revenue, $126.1 million in EBITDA, and $85.7 million in income. During the quarter, we entered into a new tanker subsector when we agreed to acquire four new-building Afromaxis LR2 vessels. These vessels are designed with the latest technology and can carry either crude or products. The page acquisition price was $58.5 million per vessel, and we will also pay $4.2 million more for additional features and improvements. Two of the vessels have been chartered out for five years at a net rate of $25,576 to an investment-grade counterparty. During the five-year period, each of these charters will earn $30.3 million in aggregate debt, representing a 10% annual yield. Keeping scrap value in mind, at the end of the charters, the residual value will be 31% of our purchase price while the vessel will still have 20 years of useful life. For the remaining two vessels, the charterer has an option to charter the vessels at the same terms and the option is exercisable by mid-October 2022. The new building VLCC acquired in 2020, delivering into our fleet in July 2022, was fixed on a two-year bare-bore charter to an investment-rated Japanese oil major at a floating rate with a floor of $22,572 per day and a ceiling of $29,700 net per day. NMM, P&L is healthy and the balance sheet remains strong. As of March 31st, 2022, we have about 108 million in cash. The size of our balance sheet cash has a number of considerations including new vessel capital commitment and fleet working capital. Consequently, I would expect that we will hold considerably more than our current cash balance. Consider only our working capital of our own fleet size, we estimate an approximate cash balance that will be around 2 million per vessel. Leverage is 28.5% LTV as of March 31st, 2022 and have a targeted maturity profile. NMM has a 2.8 billion in contracted revenue. For the remaining nine months of 2022, Our contracted revenue already exists forecasted expenses by almost $70 million. Moreover, out of our 35,500 available days, almost 16,000 of the days are exposed to market rates allowing for significant potential cash flow generation. At this point, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Stratios Desypris, our COO, who will walk you through the next few slides. Stratos.

Thank you, Angeliki, and good morning, all. Navios Partners is differentiated by its industry-leading scale and diversified sector exposures and opportunity for continuous accredited growth. Slide 9 details our strong operating free cash flow potential for the remaining nine months of 2022. We have contracted 55.4% of our about 35,500 available days at an average rate of $28,697 per day. Our contracted revenue exceeds total cash expenses by almost $70 million, and we still have 15,829 days with market exposure that will provide additional operating cash. The majority of our market exposure comes from our dry bark vessels, where approximately 76% of our available days are open or contractible index-linked charters. In slide 10, you can see our fleet profile. We are engaged in a renewal process which is a constant balancing effort. We would like to be proactive and capture cyclical opportunities while allocating capital. As you can see at the bottom of the slide, we have 24 vessels that are over 15 years of age, while at the same time, we have 22 new building vessels to be delivered from the third quarter of 2022 through the first quarter of 2025. Moving to slide 11, We continue to secure low-term employment for our fleet. As Angeliki mentioned, we recently entered into a new tankage segment, the Aframax LR2. We charter out two of these vessels, commencing in 2024 for five years, at $25,576 net per day. This will generate approximately $93 million of contracted revenue. As to our hour of chartering activity, which are the new building DLCC delivering in July 2022 on a bare-bottom basis for a period of approximately two years at a floating rate based on index with a floor of $22,572 and a ceiling of $29,700 net per day, adding operating expenses of approximately $10,000 per day The message will earn a floor of $32,572 and a ceiling of $39,700 net per day on the time-charted equivalent basis. We charter out one 4,250 TEU container ship for approximately 5.2 years at an average net rate of $40,743 per day, generating approximately $76 million of contracted revenue. Following these recent fixtures, our contracted revenue amounts to $2.8 billion. 79% of our contracted revenue comes from our container ships with charters extending through 2030 with a diverse group of quality counterparties. Around 40% of this contracted revenue will be earned through the end of 2023. I now pass the call to Eri Tsironi, Navios Partners CFO, who will take you through the financial highlights. Eri?

Thank you, Stratos, and good morning, all. I will briefly review our unaudited financial results for the first quarter ended March 31st, 2022. The financial information is included in the press release and is summarized in the slide presentation available on the company's website. I would like to highlight that 2022 results are not comparable to 2021, as in 2021 NMM gradually merged with Navios Containers and Navios Partners increasing its available days by 164% to 11,228 compared to 4,252 for the same quarter last year. Moving to the earning highlights in slide 12, total revenue for the first quarter of 2022 increased by 171.5 million or 263% to 236.6 million Thank you very much. Drybalk 19,848, containers 27,214 per day, and tankers 15,345 per day. For the three-month period ended March 31, 2021, EBITDA was affected by 124.9 million of one-off non-cash items. EBITDA for Q1 2022 increased by approximately 92.4 million to 126.1 million compared to 33.7 million adjusted EBITDA for the same period in 2021. The increase in EBITDA was primarily due to an increase in revenue partially mitigated by 50.2 million increase in personal operating expenses and 14.6 million increase in time charter and voyage expenses and 9 million increase in general administrative expenses and 4.9 million increase in direct vessel expenses excluding amortization of deferred dry dock special survey costs and other capitalized items and 0.9 million increase in other expenses net. The increase in expenses is mainly a result of the expansion of our fleet. Net income for the three-month period ended March 31st, 2022 amounted to 85.7 million as compared to 11.8 million adjusted net income for the same period last year. The increased net income was primarily due to a 92.4 million increase in adjusted EBITDA and a 21.8 million increase in amortization of unfavorable lease terms. The above increase was partially mitigated by a 29.8 million increase in depreciation and amortization expense, a 7.4 million increase in interest expense and finance cost net, and a 3 million increase in amortization of deferred right of special survey costs and other capitalized items. Turning to slide 13, I will briefly discuss some key balance sheet data. As of March 31st, 2022, cash and cash equivalents were 108 million. Our cash position has been mainly affected by the following items. 126.1 million EBITDA, 82.7 million working capital movement in accordance with the management agreement mainly relating to our tank and fleet, 19 million payments for our new building vessels, 54.5 million net payments on our loan facilities and interest payments, 12.1 million payments for dry docks and additions to vessels, and 12.1 million payments relating to claims to be settled by insurances in future periods. Long-term borrowings, including the current portion, net of deferred fees amounted to 1.32 billion. Net debt to book capitalization was at a comfortable level of 38%. Slide 14 highlights our balance of strength. Our debt is four times covered by the value of our fleet based on past situations. We have already arranged the financing for the 2022 maturities, while our remaining maturity profile is target with no significant value in any single year. Approximately 30% of our debt, including operating lease liabilities, have fixed interest rates, providing natural hedging against the foreseen rate increases. The strength of our balance sheet is also reflected in our latest financing activities. We continue to lower our margins in our new debt facilities. In March 2022, we signed a $55 million facility at SOFRA plus 2.25%. In April, we have agreed to enter a new facility of 25.2 million at SOFRA plus credit adjustment spread plus 2.5%, refinancing existing facilities with an average margin of 3.3%. We have also received offers for the financing of our new building program at even lower margin levels. Turning to slide 15, you can see our ESG initiatives. We aspire to have zero emissions by 2050. In this process, we have been pioneering and are adopting certain environmental regulations up to two years in advance, aiming to be one of the first fleets to achieve full compliance. NIBRIOS is a socially conscious group whose core values include diversity, inclusion, and safety. We have a very strong corporate governance and a clear code of ethics. Our board is composed by majority independent directors and independent committees that oversee our management and operation. Slide 16 details our company highlights. Navios Partners is a leading US publicly listed company. Our diversification strategy creates resiliency and enables us to mitigate individual segment volatility. and the diversification scale and financial strength should make NMM an attractive investment platform as we take advantage of global patterns. I now pass the call to Georgios Akhniotis, Executive Vice President of Navios Partners. Georgios.

Thank you, Eri. Please turn to slide 18 for the review of the dryback industry. Despite the disruption in trade caused by the war in Ukraine, the PDI achieved the highest Q1 average since 2010. This was driven mostly by the strength of the sub-K sectors. In fact, the supermax sector posted the highest Q1 average since assessments began in 2017, on the back of strong minor back demand and an overflow of container cargos. Driver trade in 2022 is projected to increase by 0.6%. Similar to last year, most of the increase is expected to happen in the second half of the year, with an additional boost in 10 miles Ukrainian grain exports are expected to be significantly reduced, and Russian grain and coal exports get redirected away from Europe. New, longer trade routes emerge on the back of stronger worldwide coal demand, as the world seeks to cope with extraordinarily high natural gas prices. Ten to slide 19. Demand for major and minor-backed cargoes remains in growth mode despite China lockdowns and the invasion of Ukraine. Specifically, seabourn iron ore trade is expected to increase by 10.2% in the second half of 2022, with normal seasonality projecting Brazil and Australia increasing exports as China plans further infrastructure investments to maintain 2022 targeted GDP growth of 5.5%. High gas and oil prices in the Ukraine-Russia crisis should support increased coal imports. The gas price surge has driven power plants to switch back to coal-fired power generation, helping 2022 tonne miles expand at an expected rate of 4%. Seabourn coal export inputs for the second half of 2022 will follow the same seasonal pattern as iron ore as coal demand is expected to grow by 7.8% in the second half of 2022. On the grain side, The global grain trade continues to be supported by an ever-increasing world population, rising protein demand worldwide, and heightened food security issues initially driven by the pandemic and now by war encroaching on the wheat and corn fields of Eastern Europe. Although global grain trade is expected to decrease in 2022 by 1.4% due to the Ukraine crisis, New trading patterns will result in 10-mile decrease of only 0.4%. Please turn to slide 20. The current order book stands at 6.6% of the fleet, one of the lowest on record. Net fleet growth for 2022 is expected at 2.2% and only 0.4% in 2023 as owners remove tonnage that will be uneconomic as the IMO 2023 CO2 rules come into force. Vessels over 20 years of age are about 8.3% of the total fleet, which compares favorably with the historically lower epoch. In concluding our drive-by sector review, continuing positive demand for natural resources, war and sanction-related long-haul trades for coal and grain, combined with COVID-related fleet inefficiencies and a slowing pace of new building deliveries all support healthy freight rates. Please turn to slide 22, focusing on the container industry. Demand for goods over services in the US and Europe continue to be firm, supporting container trade. Recently, rates have moderated. However, rates are over five times 10-year averages, and long-term rates are at or near record levels, allowing owners to log in long-term contracts at profitable levels. As you can see in the box on the lower right, Increases in demand for goods, poor congestion and restocking should further support container ship demand with expected growth of 3% in 2022. Turn to slide 23. Net fleet growth is expected at 3.5% for 2022, close to the demand growth forecast. It should be noted that about 66% of the order book is for 13,000 TEU vessels or larger. In addition, 10.2% of the fleet is currently 20 years of age or older. In conclusion, the container trade remains robust in spite of recent geopolitical and macroeconomic headwinds. Supply and demand fundamentals remain balanced due to continuing demand for consumables, stock building, and supply chain bottlenecks. Along with continuing fleet and port inefficiencies, should continue to support the containerized shipping industry in 2022. Please turn now to slide 25 for the review of the tanker industry. In spite of the Ukraine-Russia crisis, the IEA still projects an approximately 2% increase in world oil demand for 2022. The expectation is that by Q4, oil demand will exceed pre-pandemic levels. Refining margins have increased substantially, as strong demand for clean products continue to expand ahead of the summer travel season. The IEA projects a 17.3% increase in jet fuel demand in 2022. Both crude and clean products should benefit from boosts in 10 miles as Russian oil exports are redirected to new longer trade routes on the back of a phased-in European ban on Russian exports. Turn to slide 26. The LCC net fleet growth is projected at only 2.9% for 2022 and only 1.5% for 2023. This decline can be partially attributed to owners' hesitance to order expensive, long-lived assets in light of macroeconomic uncertainty and ending technology concerns due to upcoming CO2 restrictions. The current order book is only 6.2% of the fleet, versus over 20 years of age at 10.7% of the total fleet, which compares favorably with the low order book. Finally, turning to slide 27, The product tanker net fleet growth is projected at only 1.1% for 2022 and only 1% for 2023. The current product tanker order book is 4.9% of the fleet, one of the lowest on record, and compares favorably with the 7.3% of the fleet which is 20 years of age or older. We believe that the overall tanker order book and fleet are well balanced as the IMO 2023 and balanced water management regulations will lead to some vessels' retirements in the coming months. In concluding, product tanker rates began to pick up in recent weeks, and they are currently at healthy levels, leading the way for the crude tanker recovery. The combination of global oil demand returning to pre-pandemic levels, OPEC Plus increase in production, new longer trading routes, for both crude and products, as well as the lowest order book in three decades, should provide for healthy tangerine earnings going forward. And this concludes my presentation. I would now like to turn the call over to Angeliki for her final comments. Angeliki?

Thank you, George. This completes our formal presentation, and we'll open the call to questions.

At this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and one on your touchtone phone. You may remove yourself from the queue by pressing the pound key. And we'll go first to Chris Robertson with Jefferies.

Oh, good morning, and thanks for taking my questions.

Good morning.

So the container ship and dry bulb markets remain firm. Tanker rates are on the rise, and NMM has $2.8 billion in contracted revenue. and yet at five cents, the distribution was just 1.8% of quarterly EPU. With units trading well below NAV, how are you thinking about returning capital to unit holders at this point?

Thank you for the question. I think it is a very fundamental question of what we are doing. I mean, we have a diversified platform. What we are doing is basically We are allocating. You have seen that we have been very nimble. We actually invested in a new sector, in the Aframax LR2. We took the opportunity when other companies that are in the sector could not. They're in the tankers. We're able, because we're diversified, to allocate resources and enter very opportunistically and very conservative in a sector where it can give us a great result, the Afamax LR2. On the other side, we are on a total return and what we provide to our shareholders, we are providing them low, we have a low LTV, as you know, and we have the opportunity to have a billion three on new buildings that in essence we are able to basically Thank you very much. Thank you. And we are doing that constantly. We have been doing it across the board in the different segments, providing a total return to our investors.

Just in terms of the new building program, I guess, do you think that's come to completion at this point because a substantial and honored fleet will be replaced in coming years as those deliver? So how are you thinking about, I guess, an ongoing basis? Are you going to be More in cash harvesting mode now that they're kind of firing in all three cylinders, and that could potentially be used for more capital return to the unit holder, or do you think there's more growth from here in terms of the fleet?

Actually, you have to see between these things that you have to manage. You have the new building program, which you have to... There is low LPV, which is very, very important because we have seen that, let's not forget, we look at the horrific background, horrific, you have a war in Ukraine, you have a rising interest rate, you have basically a zero-COVID policy in China. Yes. The news in shipping are good. You have because of government and companies trying to fulfill their immediate needs. But there is uncertainty on the longer term. So we need to be prudent because we are really in a crossroads of different events. So our priority is low level. Thank you very much for the time. Thank you. We'll go next to Ulrich Marmhart with Fearnley Securities.

Good afternoon, Angeliki, Eri and Stratios, and also George. Congratulations on another great quarter. I have a question. Well, you already touched up on it on page 10 with balancing the aging vessels with new buildings. How do you... You commented on the growth, just... My question is, what do you see as the ideal or optimal fleet size? It's about 150 vessels, a number that we should expect going forward as well, or do you look for growth?

I think this is a good question, Ulrich. This is about creating value, creating an AV, and creating... Thank you very much. We were able to step in, entering a new sector in a very flexible vessel, and also a very opportunistic, where we are actually, with a five-year contract, we're generating over 30 million of our data. Okay, thank you.

Also, looking at operating cash flow, it looks like about $5 million strictly true from about $126 million of EBITDA for the quarter. I presume there are some working capital movements there. Can you provide some color or elaborate on those movements?

I think as we mentioned in the script we have you know cleared the working capital required under their management agreement mainly relating to the tanker fleet and we also have some advances for the new buildings and so that has you know many effects with our cash position.

Okay thank you and are any of those movements expected to be reversed over next quarter or and what should we expect for Thank you.

This completes the first quarter.

And this does conclude today's program. We appreciate your participation and you may now disconnect.