EUROSEAS (ESEA) Q2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Transcript

Speaker 0

Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Euroseas Ltd. conference call on the second quarter 2025 financial results. We have with us Mr. Aristides Pittas, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Tasos Aslidis, Chief Financial Officer of the company. There will be a presentation followed by a question and answer session, at which time, if you wish to ask a question, please press *1 on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. I must advise you that this conference is being recorded today. Please be reminded that the company announced their results with a press release that has been publicly distributed. Before passing the floor to Mr. Pittas, I would like to remind everyone that in today's presentation and conference call, Euroseas Ltd. will be making forward-looking statements. These statements are within the meaning of the Federal Securities Laws.

Matters discussed may be forward-looking statements which are based on current management expectations that involve risks and uncertainties that may result in such expectations not being realized. I kindly draw your attention to slide number two of the webcast presentation, which has the full forward-looking statement, and the same statement was also included in the press release. Please take a moment to go through the whole statement and read it. Now I would like to pass the floor to Mr. Pittas. Please go ahead, sir.

Speaker 3

Thank you. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thanks to all for joining us today for our scheduled conference call. Together with me is Tasos Aslidis, our Chief Financial Officer. The purpose of today's call is to discuss our financial results for the three and six-month period ended June 30, 2025. Please turn to slide three of the presentation for our quarterly financial highlights. For the second quarter of 2025, we reported total net revenues of $57.2 million and a net income of $29.9 million, or $4.29 per diluted share. Our rough net income for the quarter was $29.2 million, or $4.20 per diluted share. Our adjusted EBITDA for the period stood at $39.3 million. Please refer to the press release for a reconciliation of adjusted net income and adjusted EBITDA. Our CFO, Tasos Aslidis, will go over our financial highlights in more detail later on in the presentation.

The company, of course, has a quarterly dividend of $0.07 per share for the second quarter of 2025, which will be payable on or about September 16, 2025, to shareholders of record as of September 9. This represents a $0.05 increase or approximately 7.7% growth in the quarterly dividend payout compared to the $0.65 per share distributed in the first quarter. This highlights our confidence in Euroseas Ltd. operating strength and sustained cash flow generation. At the current rate, the increase to $0.70 per share corresponds to an annualized dividend yield of about 5.5%, which we believe is attractive and competitive within the container sector, reflecting our ongoing commitment to deliver value to our shareholders. Based on our charter coverage, we are very confident that our current dividend yield may be maintained comfortably for the next couple of years at least.

Since initiating our share repurchase plan of up to $20 million in May 2022, we have repurchased 463,000 shares of our common stock in the open market for a total of about $10.5 million as of August 13, 2025. We will continue to utilize our repurchase program in a disciplined manner as our management team may decide that enhances our long-term shareholder value. We are excited to announce the publishing of our 2024 ESG report, which is available on our website under the sustainability section. This is our fifth consecutive year that we publish such a report. We are pleased to say that we feel the Home Office is taking pride in our developments on all aspects of ESG and that the various KPIs we use to monitor our performance are mostly showing positive signs.

Please turn to slide four where we discuss our recent developments, including an update on our sales and purchase, chartering, and operational highlights. During the quarter, as already announced in May, we agreed to sell our motor vessel Marcos V for $50 million with delivery within October. Whilst we continue to have strength in the market, the price offer was simply too good to resist. The profits from the sale will thus eventually be used to further renew the fleet with younger vessels. Also, at the start of June, we were able to charter our motor vessel Emmanuel P for three years at a highly profitable level of $38,000 per day. On the operations side, there were certain planned repairs for motor vessel Evridiki G and motor vessel EM Corfu, which resulted in much higher periods of approximately 12.5 and 10 days respectively.

This upgrading work was deemed necessary for our two elder vessels to be able to seamlessly perform the very lucrative charters that we agreed upon during Q1. Our fleet experienced no other idle periods or commercial upsides during the quarter. Please turn to slide five. Here you can see that the company has a fleet of 22 vessels, including 15 feeder container ships and seven intermediate container ships with a cargo capacity of approximately 67,000 TEU and an average age below 13 years. As already disclosed, we expect the delivery of our two intermediate container ship newbuilds in the third and fourth quarters of 2027, each with a capacity of 4,500 TEU, which will further increase the size and reduce the average age of our fleet. Please turn to slide six for a further update on our fleet employment.

We continue to benefit from the strong forward coverage we have achieved. For 2025, very close to 100% of the company's available days have already been secured at an average rate of approximately $28,000 per day. Looking ahead into 2026, approximately 67% of our available days have been fixed at a new and higher average rate of $31,600 per day. As can be seen on the chart, we only have one vessel opening up for the charter within the year, and we are optimistic that this will be assessed at a very satisfactory rate too. Please turn to slide eight. Here we go over the market highlights in general for the second quarter of 2025. In the second quarter of 2025, one-year time charter reach continued to strengthen during the quarter, supported by limited vessel availability and sustained demand, particularly in the smaller segments.

In the feeder segment, rates shrunk by 8% in the second quarter of 2025 compared to the first. Market activity was primarily concentrated on contract extensions that were concluded at or above prior benchmarks, a trend that carried over into July and has continued through the first weeks of August. New contracts remain fairly limited, primarily due to lack of vessels. As we move through the second half of 2025, the operating environment remains complex and volatile. Geopolitical tensions and ongoing conflicts continue to disrupt trade patterns, while protectionist measures may create further inefficiencies. These dynamics have received global flow, and the level of uncertainty remains elevated. Consequently, forecasting the market is indeed particular. The average secondhand price index rose by about 4% in the second quarter of 2025 compared to the first, driven by limited vessel supply and ongoing competition among buyers looking to expand their fleets.

The newbuilding price index remains stable in the second quarter. Demand for newbuilds remains firm despite heightened market uncertainty stemming from the geopolitical tensions and the threat of even more tariffs. Notably, Korean and Japanese shipyards have begun to command higher pricing relative to their Chinese counterparts, probably due to U.S. trade measures and fees recently imposed on Chinese shipyards. The idle fleet, excluding vessels under repair, has continued to shrink, standing now at a negligible 150,000 TEU. For the global fleet, this marks a significant decline from the peak of 850,000 TEU that was observed in February 2023. In parallel with the strong market, recycling activity also remains subdued, with just eight vessels totaling 4,000 TEU sent for the Malaysian pier today. That price is a real slight to $430 per lightweight ton as of August 8th, 2025, in parallel with lower steel prices generally.

Thus, the global container ship fleet has already expanded by 4.1% year to date. Please turn to slide nine for our broader market overview, focusing on the development of six to twelve-month time charter rates over the past ten years. As illustrated in the graphs on this slide, container ship charter rates extended the rapid trajectory through the second quarter of 2025, standing comfortably above their ten-year average and median range, underpinned by constrained vessel availability and sustained demand strength across all segments. The IMF's July 2025 update presents a slightly more resilient global economic outlook than the previous report in Asia, with global trade developments continuing to dominate the forecast development. The global economy continues to exhibit stable, yet underwhelming growth.

Global growth, GDP growth, is projected at 3% for 2025 and 3.1% for 2026, with the 2025 and 2026 projections reversed outgrowth by 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively, compared to the April 2025 reference forecast. Admittedly, the forecasts are below the 2024 outcome of 3.3% global GDP growth and the pre-pandemic historical average of 3.7%. Global policy remains highly uncertain. Transmitted tariffs took effect on Tuesday, August 7th, with higher rates for most U.S. trading partners and are still to be decided. Taken altogether, these tariffs have pushed the average U.S. salary rate to 15.2%, according to Bloomberg Economics, well above the 2.3% last year, and this is the highest level since World War II. The short-term impact of this change, however, will probably not be huge. The United States economy is projected to grow by 1.9% in 2025 and accelerate slightly to 2% in 2026, according to the IMF.

Previous growth forecasts were revised upwards due to easing trade tensions, improved financial conditions, the weaker dollar, and the recent tax incentives aimed at stimulating business investment and consumer spending. The GDP accelerated, driven by investment and net exports. The growth in the area is now predicted at 1% for 2025, up 0.2% from the office projections. However, many European countries continue to face subdued domestic demand, manufacturing weakness, and the lingering effects of the energy shock. Global inflation is expected to continue declining, with headline inflation projected to fall to 4.2% in 2025 and 3.6% in 2026. In the euro area, inflation has gone down significantly, but in the U.S., it is still elevated as unemployment rate remains low. Emerging markets remain the primary drivers of global growth.

India, for example, is forecast to expand by 6.4% in both 2025 and 2026, fueled by strong investment, robust agriculture, and a dynamic services sector. The engineering five countries are also projected to post health gain. Also, in China, growth has been revised upwards, driven by stronger than expected economic performance in the first half of the year. There's an anticipated tariffs between the U.S. and China, at least today, and the positive impact of fiscal stimulus and reforms oriented clearly in local government areas, which will boost domestic demand. Adding to the continuous demand outlook, Clarkson's latest estimate of July 2025 projects the container trade to grow by 2.7% in 2025. This upward revision reflects the assumption that Red Sea disruptions will persist in the near term, resulting in longer voyage distances and increased mile demand.

For 2026, Clarkson assumes a gradual unwinding of these effects, projecting a contraction of 3%. Should the route of volumes return to the Suez Canal, voyage distances will shorten despite underlying cargo volumes remaining relatively stable. Turn on to slide 11. You can see the total fleet age profile and container ship overlook. The container ship fleet is relatively young, with most vessels under 15 years old and only 12% of the fleet over 20 years old. The numerator representative of total fleet stands at 7% for 2025, 5% for 2028, and 8% for 2028 only. As of August 8, 2025, the order book stands at 30.7% of the existing fleet, reflecting the ongoing wave of new business activity across the sector. We take a look over the fleet age profile and order book for ships in the 1,000 to 3,000 TEU range only. The sizes we mostly operate in.

The order book here stands at just 5.4% as of August 2025. A completely different picture, as you can see, than the overall order book. According to Clarkson's, new building deliveries for feeder container ships are expected to remain limited over the coming years. In 2025, deliveries in this segment are projected to amount to 2.1% of the total fleet only. This already modest delivery schedule is expected to slow further to 1.5% in 2026, followed by 2.5% in 2027. A positive pattern also holds for vessels in the 3,000 to 6,000 TEU range. Let's move to slide 13, which shows the different supply fundamentals across the various container ship sizes. As you can clearly see, the global order book remains heavily concentrated on the large vessels servicing main lane routes, with significant capacity growth expected there.

However, feeder and intermediate vessels, which are essential to regional distribution, face a very different supply outlook. Their order books are extremely limited, and the existing fleet is relatively old, with a large percentage of vessels over 20 years of age. These aging units are prime scrapping candidates in the shuttling market, particularly as environmental regulations tighten. As a result, it is quite possible that the fleet capacity for feeder and intermediate container ships may actually decline, even as the overall container ship fleet continues to grow. This evolving supply backdrop supports a structurally tight market in our operating segments. Turn on to slide 14. We can see for the remainder of 2025, rerouting away from the Red Sea is the major factor affecting the market. The other factor that may also have a significant impact, as already shown during the year, is of course the U.S.

administration, which still has things to see with. Following renewed attacks on cargo ships in the Red Sea in early July by Yemen's Houthi rebels, fears of further escalation have delayed any meaningful return to the Suez Road. As a result, our revised assumption is that rerouting persists through the end of 2025, with a possible reversal sometime in 2026. With the implementation of the new U.S. tariffs, following further negotiations with key trading partners, ranging from 10% to 50% depending on products and origin, trade flows could be disrupted further. At the moment, we expect their impact on global GDP and demand to remain relatively muted, though. Against this backdrop, we therefore anticipate time charter rates to remain exceptionally strong for the remainder of 2025. Looking into 2026, market conditions will hinge primarily on the status of geopolitical and economic events.

Should the package from the Suez Canal remain restricted, we expect the market to hold further, with only a modest decline. However, a faster than expected reopening could prompt a more pronounced market correction. Meanwhile, container ship ordering activity continues to accelerate, further inflating an already elevated order book and posing longer-term supply challenges from 2027 onwards. The energy transition is gaining more and more traction in the sector, with a clear industry shift towards alternative fuels and, in particular, the medium-term solution of LNG. Most new building orders encompass at least an LNG ready option. That said, technical and economic headwinds are expected to keep the pace of adoption slow. Eco-efficient vessels are, of course, increasingly commanding a charter rate premium as charters and regulators intensify the focus on emissions compliance and sustainable cargo solutions. The emissions shift in U.S.

energy policy under the current administration, marked by a more fossil fuel-friendly stance, is likely to delay, but definitely not derail the overall transition. Now, please turn to slide 15. The left-hand side slide graph shows the one-year time charter rate for two and a half thousand TEU container ships over the past 20 years. As of August 8th, the one-year time charter rate for these container ships stood at just above $35,000 a day. While below its recent peak, this level remains exceptionally high and is well above both the historical average and median. In parallel, newbuilding and secondhand vessel prices have also risen over the past year and remain significantly above their long-term historical averages. We have a significant amount of free liquidity, which we are constantly evaluating how to best use.

We are returning part of this to our shareholders through our dividend and our stock repurchase plan. We are committed to offering our shareholders a good dividend in both good and bad times, and therefore we are maintaining necessary reserves to cater for a possible downturn. At the same time, we are keeping most of our profits available to help grow the company further. In this environment of extremely high prices and seemingly high charter rates, we are not thinking of buying secondhand vessels unless we can simultaneously secure charter rates that will bring the residual value of the vessel at the end of the charter to a median level. This is proven difficult to find, though. New prices have also increased substantially during the last five years. However, we feel this is a structural increase that will be very difficult to reverse.

Prices will probably not drop, at least significantly. We are therefore seriously considering options along this front. With that, I will pass the floor to our CFO, Tasos Aslidis, to go over our financial highlights in further detail.

Speaker 4

Thank you, Aristides. Good morning from me as well, ladies and gentlemen. As usual, I will use the next four slides to give you an overview of our financial highlights for the second quarter and first half of 2025, and again compare them to the same series of 2024. For that, let's turn to slide 17 to review our results for the second quarter of 2025. During that quarter, the company reported total net revenues of $57.2 million, representing a small decrease of 2.5% of the total net revenues of $58.7 million during the second quarter of 2024. The company reported a net income for the period of $29.9 million, as compared to a net income of $4.75 million for the same period of 2024.

This was a result of a gain on a sale of a vessel recorded during the same period of last year, and the lower time charter rates are versus earlier in the second quarter of 2025 compared to the previous year, the same quarter of the previous year, partly offset by the increase in the average number of vessels owned and operated during the second quarter of this year compared to last. Total interest and other financing costs for the second quarter of 2025 amount to $4 million compared to $2.1 million for the second quarter of 2024. Capitalized interest charged on the cost of our newbuilds program was on $24 million for the second quarter of 2024. Interest expense takes into account the increased interest income.

Part of the increase, though, in addition to that, is due to the increased amount of debt we carry in the current period over the same period of last year. Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter of 2025 was $39.3 million compared to $42.3 million achieved during the second quarter of 2024. The ship in diluted terminus for the second quarter of this year was $4.62 and $4.29, calculated on about 6.9 million and 7 million diluted average number of shares outstanding, compared to basic diluted terminus for $5.99 and $5.94 respectively for the second quarter of 2024, again calculated on 6.9 and 7 million average number of shares outstanding.

Excluding the effects on the income of the unrealized loss and derivatives, the amortization of below market time charters acquired, and the portion of the vessel depreciation allocated to the below market time charters, the adjusted earnings per share for the quarter ended June 30, 2025, would have been $4.23 basic and $4.20 diluted, compared to adjusted earnings of $4.95 and $4.92 basic and diluted, respectively, from the same quarter of last year, with the latter figure still including the recording of deferred revenues that we had to record due to rate averaging and that we had to recognize as a result of the chartering of the relevant vessel being free. Let's now look at the numbers for the corresponding six-month period ended June 30, 2025, and compare it to the same period of last year.

For the first half of 2025, we reported total net revenues of $113.6 million, representing a 7.7% increase over the total net revenues of $105.4 million during the first half of 2024. We reported a net income for the period of $66.8 million, a marginally different margin increase over the $60.8 million for the first half of 2024. Total interest and other financing costs for the first half of 2025 amounted to $7.9 million. Capitalized interest charges on the cost of our newbuild program was $0.9 million for the first six months of 2025. For the same period of 2024, interest and other financing costs amounted to $4.9 million, which was inclusive of capitalized interest charged on the new final renewal program that was referred to as interest income of $2.7 million for the same period of 2024.

Adjusted EBITDA for the first half of 2025 was $76.4 million compared to $66.9 million achieved during the first half of last year. Basic and diluted earnings per share for the first half of 2025 were $9.63 and $9.60, respectively, estimated on again 6.9 and 7 million, which is around the diluted weighted average number of shares outstanding, compared to basic and diluted earnings per share of $8.77 and $8.71, respectively, for the same period of last year.

Again, excluding the effects on free income for the first half of the year of the unrealized loss and gain on derivatives, the gain on sale of vessels, and the amortization of below market time charters acquired and the portion of the depreciation allocated to the below market charters, the adjusted earnings per share for the first six months of this year would have been $7.99 basic and $7.97 diluted, compared to adjusted earnings per share of $7.63 basic and $7.57 diluted for the same period of 2024. Now let's turn to slide 18 to review, again as usual, our fleet perform. We start our review by looking at our fleet utilization rate for the second quarter of 2025 and 2024. Our fleet utilization rate is broken down into commercial and operational components.

During the second quarter of both years, our commercial utilization rate stood at 100%, while our operational utilization rate also was similar in both quarters and stood at 99.9%. On average, 22 vessels were owned and operated during the second quarter of 2025, earning an average time charter equivalent rate of $29,420 per day, compared to 29.6 vessels for the same period of last year, earning an average of $31,639 per day. Our total operating expenses, including management and G&A expenses, but excluding direct working costs, were for the second quarter of 2025 $7,694 per vessel per day, compared to $7,193 per vessel per day for the same period of last year. If we move further down on this table, we can see the customer break-even rate, which also takes into account direct working expenses, interest expenses, and loan repayments.

That in total, for the second quarter of 2025, our daily customer break-even level was $13,262 per vessel per day, compared to $13,698 per vessel per day for the second quarter of the year before. Let us now review the same figures for the six-month period for both years. During the first half of 2025, our commercial utilization rate was 100%. Our position utilization rate stood at 99.6%, compared to 99.9% commercial and also 99.9% operational for the same period of the six months of 2024. During this period, the six-month period of 2025, we operated 22.83 vessels, earning an average time charter equivalent rate of $28,468 per day, while for the same period, the first six months of 2024, we owned and operated 20.43 vessels, earning an average of $29,836 per day.

Again, our operating expenses, including management fees and G&A expenses, but not direct working, were $7,454 per day in the first half of this year, compared to $7,563 for the same period of 2024. Looking further down on the table, our customer break-even level for the first six months of 2025 was $13,164 per vessel per day, compared to $15,372 per vessel per day, mainly the result of lower loan repayments that we had during this year. At the bottom of this table, we can also see how our common dividend translates on a dollar per vessel per day basis. You can see that during the second quarter of 2025, that amounted to $2,275 per vessel per day, while for the first six months of 2025, that amounted to $2,196 per vessel per day for the dividend earnings. Here we come to slide 19 to review our debt profile.

As of June 30th of this year, our total outstanding debt stood at $229.4 million, with an average margin of approximately 2%, which, if you add a three-month shelf rate of about 4.23%, the overall cost of our senior debt is around 6.24%. In fact, it's a bit lower because part of our debt is swept at the lower shelf rate. The overall cost on average is below 6.2%. Loan repayments for 2025 amount to about $10.8 million on top of loan repayments of almost $30 million already made in the first half of the year, during which we actually received the balloon of the loan that matured. With these improvements, our debt at the end of the year will be $218.6 million.

In 2026, we perceive loan repayments of about $19.5 million with no balloon payments due, while in 2027, we anticipate making $16.9 million loan repayments alongside about $20 million of balloon payments, resulting in total payments in 2027 of $36.9 million. You can see the loan repayments for the outer years in this chart that we have on the slide. I would like to draw your attention to the bottom of this table of this slide, where we present our customer break-even level for the next 12 months, scaled down by each component. Overall, we expect a customer break-even level of approximately $12,300 per vessel per day, a level meaningfully below the current daily earnings of our fleet. Any information on our balance sheet and asset values is shown on slide 20, the last slide of my brief presentation of the financial results.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your line at this time. Thank you for your participation.

Euroseas - Earnings Call - Q2 2025

Transcript

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