Navigator Holdings Ltd.

Ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Navigator Holdings Conference Call for the first quarter of 2026 Financial Results. On today's call, we have Maz Peterzako, Chief Executive Officer, Gary Chapman, Chief Financial Officer, Orvin Lenderman, Chief Commercial Officer, and myself, Randy Gibbons, Chief Investor Relations Officer. I must advise you that this conference call is being recorded today. Now, as we conduct today's presentation, we'll be making various forward-looking statements. These statements include, but are not limited to, the future expectations, plans, and prospects from both a financial and operational perspective and are based on our assumptions, forecasts, and expectations as of today, May 6, 2026, and are as such subject to material risk and uncertainties. Actual results may differ significantly from our forward-looking information and forecasts. Additional information about these factors and assumptions are included in our annual and quarterly reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. With that, I now pass the floor to our CEO, Naz Peter Sokol. Go ahead, Naz.

Thank you, Randy. Good morning and good afternoon, and thank you for joining this Navigator Gas Earnings Call for Q1 2026. Before I get into the highlights of the quarter, let me again address the Middle East and As of today, we have no vessels operating in or transiting the Hormuz Strait. And just to be clear, we have experienced no significant negative operational or financial impact from the conflict. Only commercial tailwinds. We are watching the developments closely, and we will keep our crew and assets safe. Please turn to slide number four. The first quarter of 2026 was a quarter of resilient trading and a quarter of record net income for Navigator Gas. And now in Q2, which is starting strong. In terms of our operations during Q1, TCE rates came in just below $30,000 per day, about $1,000 below Q4, and just below same period 2025. Utilization was slightly better than Q4 and within our guided range. Net income was $36 million, or 55 cents per share, and EBITDA was $80 million. All three are strong numbers. The balance sheet remained strong. Total liquidity, less restricted cash, was $241 million at quarter end. This is essentially flat versus year end, even after paying down debt and returning capital to shareholders and completing a significant share repurchase. On that note, in March, we repurchased and canceled 3.5 million shares from BW Group at $1,750 per share for a total of $61.2 million. This is a substantial transaction, and it reflects our strong conviction of the value in our company. We're also improving our capital return policy. From Q2 onwards, our policy will be to return 35% of net income each quarter up from the 30%. The board has declared a fixed dividend of $0.07 per share for Q1, and we expect to add $6.3 million worth of buybacks to bring the total to 30% of Q1 net income. Now to what I consider the real highlight of the quarter. Our ethylene export terminal at Morgan's Point delivered record throughput at over 300,000 tons. This is up 57% from Q4 and more than two and a half times up compared to the volumes from Q1 of last year. Both European and Asian demand for U.S. ethylene is growing. European crackers are undergoing restructuring and Asian producers are switching away from NAFTA-based production given the elevated oil prices. Three new off-take contracts for the Morgans Point terminal were signed in the quarter and more are expected shortly. On vessel sales, in January, we sold the Navigator Saturn and the Happy Falcon at attractive prices and generating substantial book gains as we communicated last quarter. In April, we also sold the Navigator Pegasus for approximately $31 million, generating a book gain of about $15 million. As I've said a couple of times before, I view these asset sales as recurring income stream. We have been able to consistently sell well above book and at or above market estimates. The proceeds fund capital return and our fleet renewal ambitions. And then there's the Unigas news. In April, we signed a letter of intent to sell our eight gas carriers in the Unigas pool for an aggregate price of approximately $183 million. This is a significant strategic step, and I'd be pleased to discuss any of this in more detail during the Q&A. When new builds, financing is in place for the first two of the six vessels that we've ordered at an attractive margin of 150 basis points, equal to the best ever. Expect more good news on our new building financing to come in shortly. Looking at the Middle East, the commercial angle, only 3% of global handy-sized volumes load in the Persian Gulf. These exports have been disrupted, but that creates demand for substitute product, U.S. ethane-based ethylene, over Middle Eastern NASA-based production, and longer ton miles on ammonia. We also expect to see more LPG volumes from Venezuela that will come into the regular fleet. The supply side remains in our favor. The handy-sized order book is only 10% of the fleet, while 22% of the fleet is more than 20 years of age. Net fleet growth is likely to be flat or even negative. And then on to the outlook for Q2. This is where it gets exciting. Both TCE and utilization are expected to be above Q1 levels. April has already set some monthly navigator records. Ethylene export volumes are also expected to set a new record in Q2. But I'll leave it to Gary to talk a little bit more about the financial details. So over to you, Gary.

Thank you very much, Mats. Hello, everyone. As we entered 2026, we saw a slightly softer start to the quarter than we would have liked, but we ended with a resilient outcome overall for the quarter. And by the time we reached the end of March, supported by the strength and diversification of our platform. This was, of course, against the backdrop of ongoing geopolitical uncertainty, including continued disruption in risk across key global shipping corridors, which influenced and continues to influence trading patterns. However, many of these influences have turned into a positive tailwind for Navigator as we entered the second quarter, and Eugen will talk more about this later. Turning back specifically to the first quarter on slide 6, We're reporting an average TCE of 29,684 for this first quarter of 2026 compared to 30,647 in the fourth quarter of 2025 and 30,476 in the first quarter of last year. The slight softness in TCE this quarter arises principally from quarter-end revenue recognition under US GAAP due to having more vessels on voyage charters at the end of this first quarter compared to the end of the fourth quarter of 2025. or at the end of the first quarter of last year. And considering loading dates, revenue from a number of these vessels being recognised in the second quarter as a result Utilisation was above our benchmark at 90.6% for the quarter and was above 95% for April 2026. EBITDA for the quarter was $80.3 million, benefiting from strong terminal performance and fleet renewal gains on vessel disposals, and adjusted EBITDA was $65.9 million, lower mainly due to the factors around TCE revenue recognition mentioned just now. Vessel operating expenses were down compared to the first quarter of 2025 at $45.8 million, but very slightly below in dollar per vessel per day terms due to timing of vessel sales, and there's more guidance for 2026 on slide 9. Depreciation was slightly down compared to previous quarters due to our now slightly reduced fleet size and due to our remaining older vessel, Navigator Pluto, that reached the end of her 25-year accounting life during the fourth quarter last year and hence is no longer depreciated. General and admin costs are higher in this quarter, primarily due to one-off project-related activities and associated legal and professional fees, which are not expected to recur at the same level. Randy will discuss more about our ethylene terminal, but as Mads mentioned, throughput volumes for the first quarter were a record high of 300,537 tonnes, up compared to 191,707 tonnes in the fourth quarter of 2025, and up from 85,553 tonnes in the first quarter of 2025, resulting in a profit to Navigator from our Morgan's Point terminal in this first quarter of $2.6 million. Our income tax line reflects movements in current tax and mainly deferred tax in relation to our equity investment in the Epolyn export terminal. Net income attributable to stockholders for the first quarter of 2025 was $35.5 million, or $0.55 per share as Mads mentioned, and is the highest Navigator has ever reported. And in the quarter we completed the sale of two vessels, recording the end of $12.1 million, and completed the $61.2 million share buyback as part of the secondary offering from BW Group. The EPS figure also represents a significant increase versus both the prior quarter and the same quarter in the prior year. We continue to actively use, strengthen and build our already strong balance sheet as shown on slide 7. Our cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash balance was $199.6 million at March 31st, 2026 and including our available but then undrawn revolving credit facilities of $91 million gave total liquidity of $291 million at the same date. Taking out restricted cash leaves a total available liquidity of $241 million. This strong liquidity position is despite paying out $29 million for scheduled loan repayments, $5 million under our capital return policy in respect of the fourth quarter of 2025, and over $61 million for the 3.5 million shares repurchased and then cancelled as part of the secondary offering from BW Group. Our effort in export term is currently unencumbered, and we also owned nine unencumbered vessels at March 31, which gives us significant additional available leverage to tap when and as needed. Alongside this, we have paid from our own cash a total of $110 million as at March 31, 2026, towards the six vessels we have under construction. The difference of this figure to our balance sheet figure represents capitalised interest under US GAAP. A significant part of these construction payments will be recouped as we fix financings for our new build vessels, and together, with a still growing operational cash flow, this all helps to demonstrate our financial stability and strength. And to bring you up to date, we had around $310 million of available liquidity, or $360 million including restricted cash, at the close of business on May 4th, 2026. We continued to maintain a conservative and well-managed capital structure, and on slide 8, across the quarter, where, with a very supportive banking group and a strong underlying business, we were able to return capital to shareholders, raise funds for the construction of our new bills, reward our shareholders through buyback, and continue working on managing our debt and financing needs. We successfully entered into a new secured term loan, signing a five-year post-delivery facility for up to $133.8 million, which will be used to finance up to 65% of the delivery and also pre-delivery installments for the construction of two of our new Ethylene Panda Newbill vessels. As of March 31, we have partially drawn down $26.8 million of this facility to recoup some of our cash already paid out for these vessels. This transaction was executed at a very low margin of 150 basis points plus SOFA and we would very much like to thank our banking group for supporting Navigator on this transaction. We believe the deal and the very keen pricing not only reflects the banking market today but also the strong and stable credit position of the company. We expect financing for the remaining two of our four Panda vessels to be completed in May 2026 and financing for our two Coral Ammonia vessels to be completed in June 2026. This would result in all six of our new bill vessels being financed by the end of the second quarter this year. And in terms of debt repayments, in addition to scheduled repayments of $29.3 million in this first quarter, we'll have only two relatively small debt balloons due before 2028, with payments due in 2026 of $54 million in total. And we expect to pay down an average of $128 million of annual scheduled pro forma debt amortisation per year across 2025 through 2028. Net debt for the last 12 months of Justice EBITDA stood at 2.5 times at March 31, materially consistent with prior periods, and remains at the level where we believe is comfortable for the business. Our loan-to-fleet value ratio was approximately 32%, or below 30% when including a reasonable value for our Morgan's Point terminal investment. Then finally, as of March 31, 2026, 56% of the company's debt was either hedged or was on a fixed interest rate basis, with 44% open to interest rate variability. And this is another key metric that we keep under close review, particularly in today's economic environment. Hopefully, as you can see, we continue to prioritise returning capital shareholders while maintaining balance sheet strength, and we'll continue to balance growth, deleveraging and shareholder returns in a disciplined and careful manner. On slide 9, this slide highlights two of the core strengths of our navigator platform, our ability to generate consistent operating cash flow and our structurally lower all-in cash break-evens. Starting with cash flow, over the last 12 months to March 31, 2026, the businesses continued to generate strong underlying operating cash flows, with a pre-capx cash flow yield averaging around 15 cents. Whilst post-CAPEX free cash flow has seen some variability, this is largely a function of CAPEX timing and investments in our new bill programme, rather than any change in the underlying earnings capacity of the business. Operating cash flow generation itself has remained quite stable. Our latest estimate for 2026, all in cash break even, shown below, is $21,230 per vessel per day, which incorporates over $180 million of operating costs, $119 million of defamortisation, and approximately $44 million of net interest expense. This level remains significantly below current and historic TCE levels, providing significant headroom for the business and should allow us to deliver positive EBITDA and cash generation even through more challenging market conditions. Now, cost guidance for 2026 remains materially unchanged from that provided in the fourth quarter 2025 when adjusting for changes in fleet composition. And you can also see the expense guidance across vessel OPEX, G&A, depreciation and interest expense for both the second quarter and the full year. As noted, this guidance includes our eight uniglass vessels. And of course, should the sale of those vessels complete, there would be a corresponding reduction in certain of those cost lines, particularly OPEX and depreciation, reflecting what would then be the smaller fleet. Slide 10 outlines our historic quarterly adjusted EBITDA, adding this first quarter's results. We now have 13 quarters in a row since the beginning of 2023 of reporting at least $60 million of quarterly adjusted EBITDA at an average of $71 million over that period. On the right-hand side, as we've highlighted previously, our earnings remain sensitive to TCE movements, with approximately $17 to $18 million of annual EBITDA uplift for every $1,000 increase in TCE rates, all other things being equal. As for previous quarters, an update on our vessel dry dock schedule, projected cost and time taken can be found in the appendix, slide 30, should that detail be of interest. So then overall, Q1 started a little more slowly than we would have liked, but accelerated well as we moved into March, and the resilience of our results and the flexibility of our fleet have again been shown with another very solid set of numbers and record net income. And with market tailwinds translating into improving second quarter conditions, you can look forward with confidence and from a position of strength. So with that, I hand you over to Oyvind to provide some more details on Q1, but also on what we're seeing as we move forward. Oyvind.