Navios Maritime Partners LP

Thank you for joining Astronavius Maritime Partners' first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. With us today from the company are Chairwoman and CEO, Ms. Angeliki Frangou, Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Stratos De Cipris, Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Zairi Tzironi, and Chief Trading Officer, Mr. Vincent von der Wallach. As a reminder, this conference call is being webcast. To access the webcast, please go to the investor section of Navios Partners website, 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 Navier'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 another's partner's management and are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking state. Such risks are more fully discussed in other's partner's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The information set forth herein should be understood in light of such risks. Navier's Partners does not assume any obligation to update this information contained in this conference call. The agenda for today's call is as follows. First, Ms. Fango will offer opening remarks. Next, Mr. DeCipris will give an overview of Navier's Partners' segment data. Next, Mrs. Tironi will give an overview of Navier's Partners' financial results. Then, Mr. Vandevale will provide an industry overview. And lastly, we'll open the call to take questions. Now, I turn the call over to NAVRIS Partners Chairwoman and CEO, Ms. Angeliki Frangou. Angeliki?

Good morning, and thank you all for joining us on today's call. I am pleased with the results for the first quarter of 2026 in which we reported net income of $106.3 million and EBITDA of $212.7 million. Earnings per common unit were $3.64 for the quarter, and we announced a $0.06 distribution per unit for the quarter. Last quarter, we spoke about the emergence of a new world order, one which trade is used as an instrument of national policy. National security considerations central to decision-making, and governments are asserting greater control over strategic supply chains. The Iranian conflict underscores this shift. It also focuses global awareness on the critical importance of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital artery for the movement of essential commodities from LNG and crude oil to refined products and fertilizers. We expect this conflict to have lasting implications on trade, as countries and companies look to reduce their exposure to these choke points and diversify supply routes to safer areas. It is too early to assess the long-term impact, and we are monitoring developments closely. As you can see on slide three, our fleet has an average age of 9.1 years compared with an industry average of 13.7 years for our three segments. Our tanker fleet with an average age of 5.5 years is particularly useful relative to the broader tanker market. Overall, Navios fleet modernization program has created a fleet that is almost 35% younger than the industry average and more than 60% younger in comparison to the global tanker fleet. Please turn to slide four. Navius is a leading maritime transportation company owning, operating, and chartering a modern fleet of 173 vessels across three segments and 15 asset classes. Our fleet is split into thirds by value, with about one-third in each of the tanker, dry bulk, and container segments. The overall value of our fleet, including our new building program, is $9.7 billion. As to our fleet in the water, it has 4.6 billion in net vessel equity value. We continue to make headway in reducing our net LTV towards a target of 20-25%. At the quarter end, we had a net LTV of 28.3%. Our balance sheet is strong with $593 million available liquidity and credit ratings of BA3 by Moody's and a BB by Standard & Poor's. Please turn to slide five. Diversification is our strength. Coupled with the culture of risk management, NAVIOS can provide significant optionality. You can see this optionality in our actions over the past quarter, which I will discuss in a moment. We are continuously monitoring and assessing risk. We evaluate and structure transactions diligently. We also obtained robust insurance coverage, particularly important during a war environment. And we have implemented many tools to manage operational risks. Please turn to slide six. This slide lays out our actions since the beginning of the year, as we witnessed increasing values in the tanker space. we were disciplined initially taking advantage of a strengthening tanker market. We subsequently leveraged the significant VLCC appetite generated by the Iranian conflict. In early 2026, we observed affirming of VLCC values. We used this opportunity to sell to VLCCs with an average age of 16 years for $136.5 million. Our thinking at the time was that these prices were 102% above the 20-year average and 18% above the prior historical peak value. If there was any upside left, we thought that it was best for others. Subsequently, the Iranian conflict erupted. Sport VLCC rates were in a frenzy and there was a great appetite for VLCC tonnage. We were able to take advantage of these dynamics by engineering a transaction in which we purchased four new building VLCCs and chartered out each of them for five-year periods at almost $48,000 per day. This charter rate is about 24% above the 20-year average time charter rate. The VLCC themselves were purchased at values that were only 11% above 20-year averages. This effective arbitrage de-risked our VLCC fleet expansions as we captured $357 million in contracted revenue and reduced the average age of our VLCC fleet by almost 40% to 5.9 years. That's a pretty dense sentence, so let me simplify. We expanded our VLCC fleet by almost 60% with minimal risk in a volatile time. And we have options for four more VLCCs that may allow us to continue to expand our fleet further, which we will do if we can do it creatively. Turn now to slide 7, where we outline what actions we have taken in each of our segments. The net result is summarized on the right-hand part of the slide. Our backlog, or contracted revenue, is a record high of $4.1 billion. We increase our backlog by 16%. And for the remaining nine months of 2026, we already have excess contracted revenue over cash costs of $179 million. And we materially reduced our fleet average age, which now stands at 34% below the market. Please now turn to slide eight. A diversified fleet provides revenue visibility and market exposure. For the year, we have 53,713 available days, of which 80% are fixed and 20% are open or indexed. I would note that while we generally favor long-term charters, until recently, period charters made little sense in the dry bulk sector as the rates were weak for a prolonged period of time. Thus, about 40% of our dry bark fleet is open or indexed. Please turn to slide nine, recent development. This slide gives you a snapshot of key financial indicators. First quarter performance was strong. We generated $106.3 million of net income and $212.7 million of EBITDA from $357 million of revenue. Our debt package is designed to mitigate risk and give maximum flexibility. Our 28.3% net LTV is on the path to our target and 43% of our debt is at a fixed interest rate. In addition, Over half of our debt package has no LTV covenant, and we have almost $2 billion of assets that were debt-free. Please turn to slide 10, where we outline our return of capital program. For the first quarter, we returned about 1.7 million distributions to our unit holders. This represents a 20% increase from the prior level. In addition, here today, in 2026, we repurchased 240,502 units, or 0.8% of the flow before this purchase for $15.6 million. Overall, under our $100 million unit repurchase program, we have purchased 5.8% of the units outstanding, which, in a strange quirk of numbers, provides $5.8 value accretion per unit. We have approximately 16.4 million remaining purchase capacity under our original authorisation. Please turn to slide 11. Navios has been executing its strategy through a challenging environment. We are focused on building a platform of excellency. Over the past five years, We have grown contracted revenue by more than 20% to a record high of $4.1 billion. We have an EBITDA run rate of over $750 million and have expanded our fleet value, including our new building program, to $9.7 billion. Importantly, we have not sacrificed financial discipline in achieving these goals. In this process, we reduced our net loan-to-value by 37% to 28.3%. We recognize that there is more work ahead, but in an uncertain world, we believe that a proven platform combining a diversified fleet with a disciplined risk management culture positions us to continue delivering value through any market conditions. I now turn the presentation over to Mr. Stratos Desipris, Navios Partners Chief Operating Officer. Stratos?

Hello, Angeliki, and good morning all. Please turn to slide 12, which details our operating free cash flow potential for the remaining nine months of 2026. We fixed 73% of available days at a net average rate of $27,859 per day. Contracted revenue exceeds estimated total cash operating costs by 179.2 million, and we have 10,838 remaining open or index-linked days offering meaningful upside. Moving to slide 13, our contracted revenue backlog provides strong earnings visibility in an uncertain market. Taking advantage of the current strong rate environment, we grew contracted revenue by 16%, adding approximately 549 million of which 483.5 million from eight tankers, 65.2 million from two container ship vessels. Total contracted revenue reached a record high of 4.1 billion, 1.7 billion for tankers, 2.1 billion for container ships, and 0.3 billion for dry bulk. Tractors are extending through 2037 with a diverse group of quality counterparties. Slide 14 summarizes the fleet developments for 2026 year to date. During the period, we agreed to acquire four new building VLCCs for $482 million, with delivery expected in the second half of 2028. The vessels have been chartered out for about five years at a net rate of $47,763 per day. As previously announced, we also agreed to acquire two scrubber-fitted Japanese new building cave-sized vessels for $134.3 million. These vessels are chartered out for five years at a rate linked to the BCI index, with an average flow rate of $25,000 per day, an average fixed premium of about $3,000 per day over the index, and 50% profit sharing above the flow rate. This structure provides downside protection, stable returns, and upside participation. The vessels are expected to be delivered in the second half of 2028 and Q1 of 2029. We also sold five vessels for about 190 million, two VLCCs with an average age of 16 years for 136.5 million, two dry bulk vessels for 22.8 million, and one container ship for 30 million. Additionally, we took delivery of five new building vessels, three Afro-Mexican vessels, one MR2 vessel, and one 7,900 TU container ship. All vessels delivered are chapped out for an average duration of about five years at a weighted average net daily rate of $29,065. We continue to actively renew our fleet to maintain a young profile. We have 26 new building vessels delivering to our fleet through 2029 and representing $2.1 billion of investment. Based on our financing, both agreed and in process, we have about $329 million of equity remaining to be paid. We have mitigated the residual value risk of our new billing program with long-term credit-worthy charters expected to generate about 1.5 billion in contracted revenue over a five-year average charter duration. I now pass the call to Eri Tsironi, our CFO, who will take you through the financial highlights. Eri?