Costamare Bulkers Holdings - Earnings Call - Q3 2025

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Costamare Bulkers Holdings Limited conference call on the third quarter 2025 financial results. We have with us Mr. Gregory Zikos Chief Executive 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 that time, if you wish to ask a question, please press star then one on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. I must advise you that this conference is being recorded today, Friday, November 14th, 2025. We would like to remind you that this conference call contains forward-looking statements. Please take a moment to read slide number two of the presentation, which contains the forward-looking statements. I would now like to pass the floor to your speaker today, Mr. Zikos. Please go ahead, sir.

Gregory Zikos (CEO)

Thank you, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. This is the first full quarter during which the company reports financial results as an independent publicly traded entity. During the quarter, Costamare Bulkers generated a net income of EUR 7.4 million. With total cash of about EUR 206 million and debt of circa EUR 160 million, the company is net negative, owning a fleet of 31 dry bulk vessels with an average size of 92,000 deadweight tonnage and an average age of about 13 years. As previously announced, in September, we entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with Cargill whereby, among other things, we agreed to gradually transfer to Cargill the majority of our trading book. We have effectively transferred up to now the entire forward cargo book and FFA positions, as well as the majority of the chartered investors.

We intend to maintain our operating platform as an integral part of our business, mainly focusing on consumer access with a goal to optimize earnings and tightly manage downside exposure. We are progressing on our strategy to divest older and smaller tonnage and replacing it with younger and bigger-sized vessels. During the quarter, we concluded the disposal of five Handysize ships and one Supramax vessel, and we have accepted delivery of one Capesize. Regarding the market, the Capesize index retreated from late July by the end of August due to excess tonnage and softer Brazil flows before rebounding in late September on the back of end-of-quarter Australian iron ore and Pacific weather disruptions. In October, China's plan to impose reciprocal port restrictions on U.S.-linked vessels triggered a brief spike in the FFAs despite limited physical market impact.

However, following the 30th of October U.S.-China meeting, the measures were suspended for a year under a trade de-escalation framework, leading FFAs to ease. Panamax rates were lifted as well during October. However, as measures were suspended, they have retreated since then. Moving now to the slides presentation. On slide three, you can see our first full quarter results as an independent publicly traded entity. Net income was around EUR 7.4 million or EUR 0.30 per share. Total cash stands at about EUR 206 million, while debt at EUR 160 million is making us net negative. On slide four, you can see the evolution of the cooperation agreement with Cargill, which has been executed to a great extent. In parallel, we have early delivered three vessels and agreed to charter out two more for periods, effectively matching the chartering tenors.

Almost all of our period chartering fleet, as of the end of Q3 2025, is expected to be redelivered by the end of Q1 2026. The realigned trading platform will focus on consumer vessels, complementing the owned fleet to enhance market intelligence and greater operational flexibility. Slide five. Regarding the owned vessels, the majority of the fleet is employed on index-linked period charter agreements with the option to convert to fixed rate. Slide six. On the S&P side, we are progressing on our strategy to divest older and smaller tonnage and replacing it with younger and bigger-sized vessels. We have concluded the sale of one Supramax and five Handysize dry bulk ships. In parallel, we have concluded the acquisition of one Capesize vessel. Slide seven. Regarding financing, we have funded the acquisition of the recently acquired Cape through an existing hunting license facility.

We do have available around EUR 85 million from this line in order to fund future acquisitions. Finally, we have no major maturities till 2029. Moving to the last slide, slide eight, the FFA curve depicts a positive momentum for 2026. Capesize fundamentals are supportive, underpinned by recovering volumes and more long-haul trades. Market is expecting Capesize trades to remain resilient, also supported by low fleet growth. On the Panamax market, grain trades are expected to underpin demand amid recovering global supply and stockpiling. Net fleet growth, however, is the highest since 2013. With that, we can conclude our presentation, and we can now take questions. Thank you. Operator, we can take questions now.

Operator (participant)

All right. Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star then one on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star then two. That's star then one to ask a question. We can pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question comes from Clement Mullins with Value Investors Edge. Please go ahead.

Clement Mullins (Research Analyst)

Hi, good afternoon, and thank you for taking my questions. I wanted to start by asking whether you could provide some insight on your fixtures so far in Q4. It would be especially helpful if you could break it down by vessel class, but any commentary will be appreciated.

Gregory Zikos (CEO)

I'm afraid we don't provide this. We have done all I can tell you because the market in Q4 in general, charter rates are at quite healthy levels. What we do, it is a combination of converting index-linked vessels to fixed rate for the quarter. We do something similar for Q1 and like for Q2 of 2026. We may have a couple of spot vessels which as well are enjoying the market upside. It is a very healthy market, but I'm afraid this is not the breakdown we are currently providing.

Clement Mullins (Research Analyst)

Makes sense. Should we expect any impact on Q4 earnings from, let's call it, the wind down of CBI? Secondly, are the remaining time charterings that are set to expire over the coming months all on variable hire, or are some fixed?

Gregory Zikos (CEO)

Sorry. For CBI, I think by Q4 of 2026, because the agreement on Cargill, first of all, it was concluded end of September. All the execution takes place in Q4 of this year, practically now. The results of that, which should not be that substantial, are going to be factored in in the Q4 results. This sort of together with the charter rate environment and the positive EBITDA from the own ships in the water, the exposure we have in CBI, practically as we move into the next year, as we stated, it's going to be pretty much minimized. We do have some trading in consumer access, which are the two market conditions our intention is to grow further. However, legacy CBI positions by the end of Q1 of 2026 should be eliminated together with any remaining market exposure from the operating platform.

Clement Mullins (Research Analyst)

Very well. That's helpful. Final question from me. Your Capesize acquisitions over the past year have proven prescient. As you look forward, would you like to continue expanding your Capesize fleet, or are you comfortable as is considering current asset valuations? Any commentary you can provide on whether we should expect the institution of a dividend policy or share repurchases going forward?

Gregory Zikos (CEO)

Yeah. First of all, for the Capes, yeah, I mean, asset values have been relatively high for the Capes. I mean, the Capes we have bought in the past in total. Today, we own seven Capes. On a mark-to-market basis, they are positive. They are sort of yielding a profit both from trading and also from the value of the asset itself. Now, in general, our goal is to migrate towards larger vessels as you saw with all the countries, and we have been buying Capes. However, where the market is today, where asset values are, we may be a bit more careful and cautious before proceeding with acquisitions. Now, the second part of the question regarding dividend policy, probably buybacks, etc., this is something that during this quarter, the board did not consider. This is a board decision. Of course, we like dividends.

Insiders own close to 66% of the company, so we are fully aligned. I am afraid I will have to defer the answer to this question for the next quarterly results. For the time being, no specific decision has been taken regarding changing the dividend policy.

Clement Mullins (Research Analyst)

Yeah. Thanks for the caller. I'll turn it over. Thank you for taking my questions.

Operator (participant)

Again, if you have a question, please press star then one.

All right. This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Zikos for any closing remarks.

Gregory Zikos (CEO)

Thank you for dialing in today and for your interest in Costamare Bulkers. We're looking forward to speaking with you again during our next quarterly results call. Thank you. Operator, we can conclude the presentation.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect.