Tsakos Energy Navigation Limited

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to SACOS Energy Navigation Conference Call on the fourth quarter 2023 financial results. We have with us Mr. Takis Arapaglou, Chairman of the Board, Dr. Nicholas SACOS, Finder and CEO, Mr. Paul Durham, Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. George Saraglou, Chief Operating Officer of the company. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question and answer session, at which time, if you wish to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. I must advise you that this conference is being recorded, and now I will pass the floor to Mr. Nicholas Bournosis, President of Capital Link. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you very much, and good morning to all of our participants. I am Nicholas Bornells of Capitalink, investor and advisor to Tsakos Energy Navigation. This morning, the company publicly released its financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31st, 2023. In case we do not have a copy of today's earnings release, please call us at 212-661-7566 or email us at TEN at CapitalLink.com, and we will have a copy for you emailed right away. Please note that parallel to today's conference call, there is also a live audio and slide webcast, which can be accessed on the company's website on the front page at www.TENN.gr. The conference call will follow the presentation slides So please, we urge you to access the slides on the company's website. Please note that the slides of the webcast presentation will be available in archives on the website after the conference call. Also, please note that the slides of the webcast presentation are user-controlled, and that means that by clicking on the proper button, you can move to the next or to the previous slide on your own. And at this time, I would like to read the safe harbor statement. This conference call and slide presentation of the webcast contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe cargo provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties which may affect TEM's business prospects and results of operations. And with that, At this moment, I would like to pass the floor to Mr. Arapoglou, the chairman of Tsakos Energy Irrigation. Mr. Arapoglou, please go ahead, sir.

MR. Thank you, Nicholas. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our call today. TEN continues to deliver very strong financial performance based on very positive market fundamentals and also best-in-class operational performance. At the same time, the company keeps renewing its fleet, selling all the tonnage at today's high prices, and acquiring eco-friendly vessels, increasing its grid footprint. And it also reinforces its leading position as a very successful operator specialized, modern, dynamically positioned tankers. All these are highly accretive acquisitions, the results of which are not included in today's results, but will definitely contribute very positively going forward, which will allow us to continue our strong growth, a strong growth that we have demonstrated quarter after quarter. We're also using this current positive market to increase the number of vessels on the time charter, but at the same time we keep enough vessels to benefit from the very attractive current returns of the spot market and profit-sharing arrangements, driven by the otherwise quite unfortunate geopolitical developments. In doing so, we continue to maintain a very healthy cash balance, which allows us to be flexible and capitalize on attracting acquisition opportunities as they arise, and to continue uninterruptedly to pay sizable dividends to reward our shareholders. We're proposing as a first semiannual installment $0.60. So on behalf of the board, I wish to once again congratulate Nikos Tsarkos and his team for the excellent performance and wish them continuous success going forward. So thank you from me, and over to Nikos Tsarkos.