Costamare - Q4 2023

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Costamare Inc conference call on the fourth quarter 2023 financial results. We have with us Mr. Gregory Zikos, Chief Financial 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, 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, Wednesday, February 7th, 2024. 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 will now pass the floor to your speaker, Mr. Zikos. Please go ahead, sir.

Gregory Zikos (CFO)

Thank you, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. 2023 has been a growth year for Costamare. The company had revenues of $1.5 billion and generated net income of about $350 million. Liquidity stood at around $1 billion as of year-end. Following our strategic decision in 2021 to enter into the dry bulk sector at an opportune time in the cycle, we have grown during 2023 our newly established trading platform to an operator managing a fleet of 51 dry bulk vessels. Having invested $200 million in the new venture, we have a long-term commitment to the sector, whose fundamentals we view positively.

Regarding Neptune Maritime Leasing, the platform has been steadily growing on a good basis throughout 2023, having now concluded leasing transactions for 23 ships with a total value of about $250 million. We are committed to further growing the leasing business on the back of a healthy pipeline extending over the coming quarters. On the owned dry bulk fleet side, we are executing our strategy to renew the dry bulk fleet and increase its average size. During the year, we took the decision to dispose of 12 smaller-sized vessels and have agreed to acquire three Capesize and one Ultramax vessel. Subject to market conditions, our goal is to continue our expansion in the dry market. In the containership market, recent events have been contributing positively to the supply and demand dynamics, pushing up box and charter rates.

Those recent developments are mitigating the effects of oversupply in the containership market as tonnage is expected to remain tight at least until the Chinese New Year. We have, however, proactively secured employment for 95% and 78% of our open days for 2024 and 2025 respectively, putting our contracted revenues for the containership vessels at $2.5 billion, with a remaining time charter duration of about 3.6 years. Moving now to the slides presentation. On slide three, you can see our annual results. Net income was about $350 million or $2.95 per share. Adjusted net income was around $250 million, or $2.07 per share. Our year-end liquidity stands at roughly $1 billion. Slide four.

Regarding CBI, we have chartered in period 51 vessels, with the majority of the fleet being on index-linked agreements. On our leasing platform, we have already invested around $120 million. Since inception, NML has financed 23 assets through sale and leaseback transactions and has a very healthy pipeline going forward. Slide five. We have now acquired York's equity interest in feeder container ships and in a feeder container ship, and have now agreed to acquire one Capesize dry bulk vessel. In parallel, we have concluded the sale of two Supramax and three Handysize ships, while we have agreed to sell three more Handysize and one Supramax dry bulk ship. Slide six.

During the fourth quarter, we have financed the acquisition of one dry bulk vessel through a new Japanese leasing facility, while we have roughly $132 million available for financing of further vessel acquisitions. We do continue to charter all our dry bulk vessels in the spot market, having entered into more than 40 chartering agreements since our last earnings release. On the container ship side, as already mentioned, our revenue days are fixed 95% for 2024 and 78% for 2025, while our contracted revenues are $2.5 billion, with a TEU weighted average remaining duration of 3.6 years. Moving to slide seven. During 2023, we have purchased approximately $6.3 million of common shares for a total consideration of $60 million.

In addition, we continue to have a long uninterrupted dividend track record, boosted by strong sponsor support. Slide eight. As mentioned already, our liquidity stands at roughly $1 billion. This liquidity gives us the ability to look for opportunities to grow the company on a healthy basis. Moving to slide nine. Charter rates in the containerships, in the containership market have been rising daily across all segments, having benefited from the Red Sea crisis. The idle capacity remains at low levels at 0.8%.... Moving to the last slide. On slide 10, you can see the recent dry bulk market trends in the spot and forward market. Charter rates remain volatile, having been corrected from the highs of Q4 2023. Today's order book is at 8.5% of the total fleet. With that, we can conclude our presentation and we can now take questions.

Thank you. Operator, we can take questions now.

Operator (participant)

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. Again, that's star one to ask a question. Our first question comes from Chris Wetherbee with Citigroup. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Hey, good morning. This is Madeline for Chris. Thanks for taking the question.

Gregory Zikos (CFO)

Hi, good morning.

Speaker 4

Good morning. Yeah, just wanted to touch a little bit, a little bit more on CBI. Last quarter, you mentioned having a fixed fleet of 59 dry bulk vessels on period charters, but this quarter, 51. So we were just wondering if you could provide a little bit more detail on sort of what drives that variability on the platform from quarte- to-quarter, and how that can affect profitability levels as well as the magnitude of potential shift in that profit. I think that would be great to start.

Gregory Zikos (CFO)

Yeah. Thanks for the question. First of all, you're right, it was close to 59 ships chartered in the previous quarter. We mentioned 51 now. It has nothing to do with our intention to grow the company further. It is just that, during that quarter specifically, there were some re-deliveries which coincided all together, and like, we are now in the process of chartering in additional vessels. Now, at the same time, I need to remind you that we also employ FFA. So, I mean, instead of chartering in a vessel, at some point, if you cannot find a suitable asset in the market, you can buy, for instance, FFA days for Capes or for Panamax.

So, the smaller amount of ships chartered in has absolutely no effect, and this shouldn't be misconstrued as our willingness to shrink the business. Quite the opposite. This is a long-term strategic decision, and we are committed to the, you know, dry bulk sector, both through CBI and also through our own dry bulk ships. So, it is a matter of deliveries that have coincided where the market is. We may be buying FFAs instead of chartering in ships. And in this business, we need to be opportunistic. More ships will be chartered in when we find the right asset also at the right price.

Speaker 4

Okay. Interesting. Okay, thank you for the further granularity. And just as a follow-up, wanted to touch a little bit more too, on the topic of share repurchases. You've been holding off on, you know, buying back your stock, over the last few months, and just given the current plan that you guys have outstanding in terms of $30 million for common shares and $150 million for preferred, what was your plan moving forward with that, and sort of how do you think about, you know, how share count can move moving forward?

Gregory Zikos (CFO)

Yeah, first of all, the share repurchases, like the common stock dividends, this is a board decision. These are subjects that are part of the board discussion every quarter. But, leaving that aside for the time being, we are the majority shareholders, the founding family at about 60%. So both dividend and share repurchases that help the stock price, we are all like the stock price go higher. We are 100% aligned. At the same time, regarding the optimal capital allocation, we need to be able to tap on new opportunities when like there are. So we bought back common stock worth of $60 million during the years or sort of during last year.

We also did some purchases in the past, some years ago. I'm not saying that we sort of excluded. This is a board decision, and those issues are discussed, but I'm not ready to tell you that we're gonna be buying back more stock like next quarter or in 2 quarters' time. This is all subject to market condition, and this is subject to the view we take regarding the optimal capital allocation of the company. So I'm afraid I cannot be more specific on that, simply because this is an ongoing discussion. And for the time being, we feel that this is something that could happen the next quarter or the quarter after or, or like during 2024. But I'm not in a position to give you an exact timing. Depends on market conditions.

Speaker 4

Got it. Got it. Understood. So, it would be fair to assume that for, you know, the foreseeable future at elevated stock prices, it's unlikely that repurchases are going to be executed, correct?

Gregory Zikos (CFO)

Well, no, I didn't say that, because I believe that the stock is undervalued. And, if you look at some NAV calculations, you will see that the stock's value, also considering the value of the container ships and also of the dry bulk vessels and the, and the contracted revenues from the container ships and the net debt, I think on a, like, NAV basis, the stock is worth much more than the $10 or like $11. The fact that we are not buying back shares, it's not because we don't believe that the stock is undervalued. We definitely believe that the stock is undervalued. However, we still may, we may find it optimal to use that cash in order to buy ships or in order to boost the CBI or Neptune Maritime Leasing.

But it doesn't mean that because we don't buy back shares, we don't feel that the stock is undervalued. Quite the opposite. The stock has been undervalued for quite some time now. As is in most of the cases, this is what's happening with the shipping stocks. So we are definitely trading at below NAV.

Speaker 4

Understood. Thank you very much for all of the further color. I'll turn it over on that.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Ben Nolan with Stifel. Please go ahead.

Ben Nolan (Managing Director in the Transportation sector of Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Good morning, Greg. I had a couple, but I wanted to start with the asset sales that you guys did. I know that you in the release you put the net after debt repayment, but could you give the gross proceeds from the asset sales?

Gregory Zikos (CFO)

I can tell you that for the ships we sold, after debt repayment, the net cash in total, for 2023 is close to $80 million, more or less. $79 million.

Ben Nolan (Managing Director in the Transportation sector of Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Okay, I guess my question is how much is that debt that we should expect to be repaid?

Gregory Zikos (CFO)

Yes, sorry. This debt for those ships has been repaid. So, I mean, we sold the ships, we paid back the debt, and the net equity proceeds were like $80 million for all the ships.

Ben Nolan (Managing Director in the Transportation sector of Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Okay.

Gregory Zikos (CFO)

Now, the new ships we bought, in total, bought or sort of have agreed to buy, it's like, four Capes, and you can assume that those are gonna be funded with a leverage of close to 60%, on the asset value. I think these are-

Ben Nolan (Managing Director in the Transportation sector of Senior Equity Research Analyst)

All right. Okay. All right. My next question had to do with the Neptune leasing program. You guys still have a little bit more to go under your original commitment, but, you know, obviously it's growing. How do you think about that longer term? Is this something where, you know, once you reach sort of your commitment level, that, that amount would grow? Or do you think in time, your relative position shrinks because there's, you know, capital coming in from other sources that, you know, mean that your effective position is a little bit diluted, or, you know, I don't know, how are you thinking about that business?

Gregory Zikos (CFO)

Now, look, up to now, this business has grown. I mean, when we started, we started consolidating that, you know, the business and we, and we bought the shareholding, interest in March of 2023. So we talk about three quarters of operation. And over those three quarters, the business has from funding one-to-two vessels, we are like at 23 today, funded, and, with a very strong pipeline going forward. So our goal is to further, grow the business, and, in order to boost the, our returns, as you can imagine, we are also focusing on, back leveraging our equity. So, boosting our returns and at the same time being able to participate, in more transactions with our, equity shareholding.

Now, when we reach the 250, where with back leverage, the 250, it could be total deals of, depending on the asset and on the leverage between $800 million-$900 million, $1 billion, whatever the back leverage will be. I think it's gonna be a meaningful size. At this point, in time, we're gonna see how the... I mean, how like, whether we're going to grow the business further, whether we want to have, other people join in, what are the alternatives, a listing, a lot of things. I'm not ready to talk about this yet. I mean, the fact that we have options, it's a good thing. The fact that it is, growing, it's good as well. And I have to stress that, it's not growing for the sake of growth.

It's growing based on deals that we feel from a credit perspective and also from a returns perspective, including the back leverage, makes sense. So this is sort of a growing business which completes the rest of our assets. You don't expect to have the volatility of the returns you have with the dry bulk vessels or sort of in CBI, but it is, let's say, a steady return which does make sense. And there are a lot of options at the moment where, like, we're gonna be reaching the $1 billion of deals or $800 million, whatever that is, depending on the back leverage. So we are quite positive on that line of business.

Ben Nolan (Managing Director in the Transportation sector of Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Mm-hmm. Okay. And then I guess my last question relates to the container business. You know, obviously, your existing book is well covered, et cetera. Asset values have fallen, certainly from the peak. Are we getting to a place where maybe, you know, deals and returns in the container market are getting close to something that you'd look to maybe come back to and invest in that space again? Or in your view, is there still some room to go?

Gregory Zikos (CFO)

I think there is still some room to go, although you can never predict the market, but it would take it one by one. If you look at new buildings, new building prices for container ships, they still remain at very high levels. So I mean, this is the first thing. Then the second thing, also secondhand prices, still they are at levels which have come off, and they may come off even more, but where they are today, buying at levels that would make sense if you have to have, first of all, if you want to have a good understanding of your sort of residual value risk with some potential upside, I think that we still have some way to go. Of course, as like the new buildings will continue kicking in.

Whether the asset prices and new deals may make sense in a year's time, or like in six months, or like in two years, I cannot tell, but for the time being, I think we need to be, we need to be patient there, if we want to have a well-structured transactions with like, manageable downside and also with some residual upside.

Ben Nolan (Managing Director in the Transportation sector of Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Right. Okay, I appreciate it. Thank you, Greg.

Gregory Zikos (CFO)

Sure. Thank you. Thank you, Ben.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Climent Molins with Value Investor's Edge. Please go ahead.

Climent Molins (Head of Shipping Research)

Hello?

Operator (participant)

Climent, your line is now live.

Climent Molins (Head of Shipping Research)

Sorry, sorry about that. Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. I wanted to follow up on the question on CBI. Could you provide some commentary on how the segment fared during the quarter? And secondly, has recent turmoil in the Red Sea had an effect on the trades you are engaged on, specifically on CBI?

Gregory Zikos (CFO)

Okay. Regarding CBI, we don't provide in our press release detailed segmental information, neither for CBI nor like for the dry bulk owned vessels, or like for the containers, or for Neptune Maritime Leasing. There will be some information in our 6-K filings, but for the time being, I'm afraid this is not part of our press release presentation. So we provide the full picture, and for every business, we provide the number of assets, the CBI that chartered, sort of, investors, for example, with a generic description about the transactions there, like, for example, that most of the ships are chartered in at index-linked charter rates. So I'm afraid that this is for CBI now.

Regarding the Red Sea event in the CBI business, I cannot say that we had a huge effect on our voyage charters or like the profitability or... For the Capes, for instance, the C3 or C5 may not be affected by that area. So I cannot say that we saw something which made the market much more volatile. For the Capes, for instance, for Q4, we saw increased volatility because of adverse weather conditions in China. But this was not linked to the sort of Red Sea disruptions. So concluding, I cannot say that we saw any major effect in the CBI business.

Climent Molins (Head of Shipping Research)

Makes sense. Thank you. I also want to follow up on Ben's question on Neptune Leasing. As I understand it, it's fully consolidated in your financial statements. You mentioned potentially adding leverage to free up capital, but I was wondering, was there any debt outstanding on Neptune as of year-end?

Gregory Zikos (CFO)

There is. There is, because Neptune, it is capitalized by our equity, and in the transactions we conclude, as Neptune, Neptune gets back leverage. So, it gets debt from third-party providers for every transaction it is entering into. So there is also leverage at the Neptune level. Now, generally, the leverage of Neptune is at low levels in the region of, I don't know, between 35%-45%, depending on the transactions. But yes, in order to have solid returns on our equity investments in Neptune, we need to have some back leverage there as well. However, at lower levels.

Climent Molins (Head of Shipping Research)

Makes sense. Thanks for the color. That's all from me. Thank you for taking my questions.

Operator (participant)

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 (CFO)

Thank you all for dialing in and for your interest in Costamare. We are looking forward to speaking with you again during the next quarter quarterly results. Thank you very much. Bye.

Operator (participant)

Conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.