Navios Maritime Partners - Earnings Call - Q3 2025

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Thank you for joining us for Navios Maritime Partners' third quarter 2025 earnings conference call. With us today from the company are Chairwoman and CEO, Ms. Angeliki Frangou, Chief Operating Officer, Ms. Stratos Desypris, Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Eri Tsironi, and Chief Trading Officer, Mr. Vincent Vandewalle. As a reminder, this conference call is being webcast. To access the webcast, please go to the investor section of Navios Maritime Partners' website at www.navios-mlp.com. You'll see the webcasting link in the middle of the page, and a copy of the presentation referenced in today's earnings conference call will also be found there. Now, I will review the Safe Harbor Statement. This conference call could contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 about Navios Maritime Partners. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts.

Such forward-looking statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of Navios Maritime Partners' management and are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Such risks are more fully discussed in Navios Maritime Partners' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The information set forth herein should be understood in light of such risks. Navios Maritime Partners does not assume any obligation to update the information contained in this conference call. The agenda for today's call is as follows: first, Ms. Frangou will offer opening remarks. Next, Mr. Desypris will give an overview of Navios Maritime Partners' segment data. Next, Ms. Frangou will give an overview of Navios Maritime Partners' financial results. Then, Mr. Vandewalle will provide an industry overview. Lastly, we'll open the call to take questions.

Now, I turn the call over to Navios Maritime Partners Chairwoman and CEO, Ms. Angeliki Frangou. Angeliki.

Angeliki Frangou (CEO)

Good morning, and thank you all for joining us on today's call. I am pleased with the results for the third quarter and first nine months of 2025, in which we reported revenue of $346.9 million and $978.6 million, respectively. We also reported EBITDA of $193.9 million and $519.8 million, respectively, and net income of $56.3 million and $168 million, respectively. Earnings per common unit were $1.90 for the quarter and $5.62 for the nine-month period. For the past five years, it seems as if we have been addressing constant change in our operating environment driven by geopolitical and other events. Yet, we have remained laser-focused on our business, modernizing our fleet. As you can see on slide three, our fleet has an average age of 9.7 years compared to an industry average of 13.5 years for our three segments.

Our reinvestment program puts us in a fortunate position of having a fleet that is almost 30% younger than the average and almost half when you look at our tanker fleet. Please turn to slide four. Navios is a leading maritime transportation company owning, operating, and chartering a modern fleet of 171 vessels across three segments and 15 asset classes. Our fleet is split about one-third in each category by vessel number and vessel value. Vessel values are $6.3 billion in gross value and $3.8 billion in net equity. We also enjoy a low net LTV of 34.5% and have $412 million available liquidity and strong credit ratings of BA3 by Moody's and BB by S&P. Please turn to slide five. We believe that diversification is strength. When embedded in a culture of risk management, we have a business providing significant optionality in our decision-making process.

For example, when chartering, if we are unable to secure long-term charters that provide a reasonable return on our investment, we limit our exposure to short-term waiting for sector opportunity to return. We approach the allocation of capital similarly, patiently observing the market for either opportunistic purchases or acquisitions that can be had by long-term charters with a credit-worthy counterparty. These activities are accompanied by deleveraging goals with maintained strong balance sheets and a target net LTV of 20.5%. I would offer that all this works because of our strong risk management culture. We are continuously monitoring and assessing risk. We evaluate and structure our transactions with risk management professionals who are equal partners in all our activities. We also obtain robust insurance coverage for liability and losses, and we have implemented many tools to manage operational risk and crew training. Please turn to slide six.

Our fleet gross LTV was 40.6% at the end of the third quarter. Net LTV was 34.5%, and we aim to continue to drive net LTV lower. We added $745 million of long-term contracted revenue during the quarter, and our revenue backlog is $3.7 billion. Currently, virtually all of the fleet is covered for the fourth quarter of 2025. Please turn to slide seven. I would like to focus on the prospects for 2026, which are shaping up nicely. We are covered 58% of our days and reduced the cost break-even to $894 per day for the remaining 23,387 open and index days. You can see the breakdown of each segment on the right part of the slide. 92% of our container days and 73% of our tanker days are fixed, with dry bulk days representing most of our market exposure by number of days. Please turn to slide eight.

A few weeks ago, we took the opportunity to offer a $300 million senior secured bond in the Norwegian market. We priced that bond at par at a coupon of 7.75% with a five-year term. The proceeds are used to repay $292.3 million of floating rate debt and the balance for issuance fees and for general corporate purposes. This transaction has no impact on our leverage rate because the proceeds are used to refinance existing debt, but we believe opportunistic financing reduces interest rate risk by replacing floating rate debt with a fixed interest rate. It also releases collateral, and we have around $1.2 billion of debt-free vessels. Pro forma for this transaction, we have 41% of our debt fixed at an average interest rate of 6.2%. The bond also introduces us to the Norwegian market, providing an alternative source of financing.

Please turn to slide nine, where we outline our return of capital program. As you can see here today, we have returned $42.2 million under the dividend and unit repurchase programs. Today, we purchased almost 5% of the number of units outstanding determined as of the date we launched the program. We have $37.3 million purchase power remaining. These purchases have resulted in a $4.6 per unit value accretion, assuming the analyst estimate of NAV of around $138 per unit. Please turn to slide ten. Navios is a proven platform that has been executing its strategy in a challenging environment. I reference to the many uncertainties when I started this discussion. Certainly, the geopolitical risks, regional conflicts, changing global tariff regime, and evolving trade patterns are unprecedented in recent history. We have remained focused in over the past four years.

We have built a platform with a bed out run rate of about $750 million, while increasing our book of contracted revenue to $3.7 billion and our vessel value to $6.3 billion. At the same time, we have decreased our net LTV by 23%-34.5%. We have more to do, but we believe that this proven platform containing a diversified fleet with a risk management culture is the way to do it. I now turn the presentation over to Mr. Stratos Desypris, Navios Maritime Partners Chief Operating Officer. Stratos.

Stratos Desypris (COO)

Thank you, Angeliki, and good morning, all. Please turn to slide eleven, which details our operating fleet cash flow potential for Q4 of 2025 and 2026. For Q4 2025, we fixed 88% of our available days at a net average rate of $24,871 per day. Contracted revenue exceeds estimated total cash operating cost by about $86 million, and we have 1,594 remaining open or index link days that should provide additional cash flow. For 2026, we have fixed about 58% of our available days at a net average rate of $27,088 per day, generating about $860 million in revenue. This almost covers our total estimated cash operating cost for the year, resulting in a break-even of $894 per day on our 23,387 open index days. Please turn to slide twelve. We are constantly renewing our fleet in order to maintain a young profile.

We reduce our carbon footprint by modernizing our fleet, benefiting from newer technologies and advanced environmentally friendly features. During Q3, we acquired four newbuilding 8,850 TEU container ships for a total price of $460 million. These vessels have already been chartered out for a firm period of over five years at a net rate of $44,145 per day, generating revenues of $336 million. We have 25 newbuilding vessels delivering to our fleet through 2028, representing $1.9 billion of investment. Based on our financing, both agreed and in process, we have about $230 million of equity remaining to be paid. In container ships, we have eight vessels to be delivered with a total acquisition price of about $900 million. We have mitigated residual value risk with long-term creditworthy charters expected to generate about $600 million in revenue over a five-year average charter duration.

In tankers, we have 17 vessels to be delivered for a total price of approximately $1 billion. We charter out 11 of these vessels for an average period of five years, expected to generate aggregated contracted revenue of about $0.6 billion. We also continue to opportunistically sell older vessels. In 2025, we sold 12 vessels, six dry bulk, three tankers, and three container ships with an average age of over 18 years for a total of about $235 million. Moving to slide 13, we continue to maintain a strong backlog of contracted revenue that creates visibility in an uncertain environment. During the quarter, we added $745 million of contracted revenue, $595 million from container ships, including the $336 million on the four new building vessels, $138 million on tankers, and $12 million on dry bulk vessels. Total contracted revenue amounts to $3.7 billion.

$1.3 billion relates to our tanker fleet, $0.2 billion relates to our dry bulk fleet, and $2.2 billion relates to our containerships. Charters are extending through 2037 with a diverse group of quality counterparties. I now pass the call to Eri Tsironi, our CFO, who will take you through the financial highlights. Erifili?

Thank you, Stratos, and good morning, all. I will briefly review our annotated financial results for the third quarter and the nine months ended September 30, 2025. The financial information is included in the press release and is summarized in the slide presentation available on the company's website. Moving to the earnings highlights on slide 14, total revenue for the third quarter of 2025 increased by 1.8% to $347 million compared to $341 million for the same period in 2024 due to higher fleet combined time charter equivalent rate despite lower available days. Our combined TCE rate for the third quarter of 2025 increased by 2.4% to $24,167 per day, while our available days decreased by 0.8% to 13,443 days compared to Q3 2024.

In terms of sector performance, the TCE rate for our combined container and tanker fleet increased by 3.7% and 1.7% to $31,832 and $26,238 per day, respectively. In contrast, our TCE rate for our dry bulk fleet was 3.5% lower at $17,976 per day. EBITDA for the third quarter and first nine months of 2025 was adjusted as explained in the slide footnote. Adjusted EBITDA for Q3 2025 decreased by $1.4 million to $194 million compared to Q3 2024. The decrease was primarily driven by a $4.5 million decrease in other income net, mainly due to the decrease in foreign exchange gains and a $3.2 million increase in vessel operating expenses, mainly due to a $3.4 million increase in OPEX stays and a $2 million increase in general administrative expenses in accordance with our administrative services agreement.

The above decrease was partially mitigated by a $6.1 million increase in time charter and voyage revenues and a $2.2 million decrease in time charter and voyage expenses, mainly due to the decrease in bunker expenses as a result of lower freight voyage days in the third quarter of 2025. Our average combined OPEX rate was $6,798 per day, only $10 more than Q3 2024. Adjusted net income for Q3 2025 was $84 million compared to $97 million in Q3 2024. The decrease is mainly due to a $9 million increase in depreciation and amortization and a $2 million increase in interest expense and finance cost net. Adjusted earnings and earnings per common unit for the third quarter of 2025 were $2.8 and $1.9, respectively. For the first nine months of 2025, revenue decreased by $23 million to $979 million.

Adjusted EBITDA decreased by $29 million to $520 million, and adjusted net income decreased by $67 million to $196 million compared to the same period in 2024. Our combined TCE rate for the first nine months of 2025 was $22,825 per day. In terms of sector performance, the TCE rate for our containers increased by 3.1% to $31,213 per day compared to the same period in 2024. In contrast, our dry bulk and tanker TCE rates were approximately 9.2% and 3.5% lower, respectively. TCE rates for our dry bulk vessels stood at $15,369 per day and for our tankers at $26,290 per day for the first nine months of 2025. Our average combined OPEX rate was 2.4% higher compared to the first nine months of 2024 at $6,961 per day, also as a result of the change in the composition of our fleet.

Adjusted earnings and earnings per common unit for the first nine months of 2025 were $6.6 and $5.6, respectively. Turning to slide 15, I will briefly discuss some key balance data. As of September 30, 2025, cash and cash equivalents, including restricted cash and time deposits in excess of three months, were $382 million. During the first nine months of 2025, we paid $178 million under our new building program net of debt. We concluded the sale of six vessels for $75 million, adding about $49 million cash after debt repayment. Long-term borrowings, including the current portion net of deferred fees, increased to $2.2 billion following the delivery of six vessels during the first nine months of the year. Net debt to book capitalization improved to 33.8%.

Slide 16 highlights our debt profile, with our recent $300 million senior unsecured bond, which further diversified our funding resources in addition to bank debt and leasing structures. The bond has a fixed interest rate of 7.75%, and proforma for the bond, 41% of our debt is fixed at an average rate of 6.2%. We also have mitigated part of the increased interest rate cost by reducing the average margin for our floating rate debt and bareboat liabilities for the in-the-water fleet to 1.8%. I would like to note that the average margin for the committed and drawn floating rate debt of our new building program is 1.5%. Our maturity profile is staggered, with no significant balloons due in any single year until 2030 when the bond matures. In Q3 2025, Navios Maritime Partners completed three facilities for a total amount of $246 million.

One additional facility of $68 million was signed in October. I now pass the call to Vincent Vandewalle, Navios Maritime Partners Chief Trading Officer, to take you through the industry section. Vincent?

Vincent Vandewalle (CTO)

Thank you, Eric. Please turn to slide 18. Geopolitical developments continue to shift worldwide trading routes caused by the tariff war, restricted Suez Canal passages, the Ukraine war, and port fee impositions by the US and China. Announced tariffs and the implementation pauses in effect are not expected to have a significant effect on tankers and dry bulk trade apart from steel. Tariff impacts on grain and containerships are expected to reduce following the recent trade deal between the US and China. The Red Sea entrance leading to the Suez Canal continues to operate at restricted transit levels, increasing tonnage for most vessel types. Since the Gaza ceasefire, Houthis announced that they have ceased attacks on shipping, but there were several piracy incidents off Somalia at the beginning of November.

The Ukraine war is shifting trading patterns, limiting grain exports out of the Black Sea and benefiting exports out of Brazil and the United States. Russian crude and product exports are adjusting to tighter sanctions on Russian oil producers Rosneft and Lukoil, elevating rates for non-sanctioned vessels. USDR port fees on Chinese vessels and similar Chinese port fees on US vessels have been put on hold for a year, while the two countries negotiate a more permanent solution. Please turn to slide 20 for the review of the dry bulk industry. Demand growth for dry bulk has been relatively stable over the last 25 years at about 4% average annual tonnage growth. The current order book stands at about 11% of the total fleet and will remain low due to high new building prices, uncertainty about new fuel regulations and availability, and general market outlook.

The fleet is aging quickly, with 39% of the vessels 15 years old and with the older vessels far exceeding those on order. Supply should be constrained over the medium term. Please turn to slide 21. The main driver of dry bulk demand will be strong Atlantic basin iron ore growth over the next several years, with new projects in Guinea and Brazil. The biggest new project is Simandou in Guinea, starting now, which will ramp up to 120 million tons by 2027. Also, Vali in Brazil has three new projects totaling 50 million tons expected to start exporting by the end of 2026. The total of 170 million tons are all long-haul tonnage trades, creating demand for an additional 234 capes. With the current order book of only 173 capes, a further tightening of supply and demand is expected over the next few years, benefiting rates.

Overall, the dry bulk market looks positive based on steady long-term demand growth and a constrained supply of vessels. Please turn to slide 23 for the review of the tanker industry. Reviewing the supply side, as in dry, we see a relatively low tanker order book of 16%, with 51% of the fleet already over 15 years old, rising quickly in the next few years. With all the vessels exceeding the order book and yards offering first deliveries in late 2028, supply is set to be tight for several years. Please turn to slide 24. The U.S. Office of Foreign Asset Control, OFAC, the EU, and the U.K. continue to sanction Russian, Venezuelan, and Iranian oil revenue and the ships delivering their crude and products. These types of sanctions have two main effects.

Sanctioned oil volumes from these three countries have more difficulty finding willing buyers, raising demand for compliant barrels and non-sanctioned vessels to carry that oil. Secondly, with 785 tankers now sanctioned, the fleet has already seen a significant reduction of about 14% of total capacity. The tanker market also looks positive over the medium term based on a low order book, an aging fleet, and a reduced fleet due to sanctions. Please turn now to slide 26 for a review of the container industry. After the COVID pandemic, container ships are ordering, focusing mainly on the biggest units, with fleet expansion in large vessels set to continue from high levels this year into next. Currently, 80% of the order book is for bigger ships with 9,000 TEU capacity or greater, and only 70% of the order book is for 2,000-9,000 TEU capacity, where Navios is most active.

Smaller segments of the fleets are well positioned to take advantage of shifting trading patterns. As shown on the right-hand graph, growth in non-mainland trades far exceeds the traditional mainland trades to the U.S. and Europe due to tariffs and higher growth in developing economies. Trades involving the southern hemisphere, mostly served by smaller-sized vessels, are expected to see continued held growth as this trade shift continues. Overall, Navios Fleet is well positioned within the container market and continues to benefit from long-term employment with our high-quality charters. This concludes our presentation. I would now like to turn the call over to Angeliki Frangou for her final comments. Angeliki?

Angeliki Frangou (CEO)

Thank you, Vincent. This concludes our formal presentation, and we open the call to questions.

Operator (participant)

At this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press the star and one on your telephone keypad. You may withdraw your question by pressing star two. Once again, to ask a question, please press the star and one on your telephone keypad. We will take our first question from Omar Nokta with Jefferies. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Omar Nokta (Senior Equity Analyst)

Thank you. Hi, good morning or good afternoon, Angeliki and team. Thanks for the update. Slide 11 has a really nice summary. Hi, Angeliki. Yeah, slide 11 has a really nice summary that shows in 2026 how you have 42% of your available days open to, say, the spot market or index rates. Yet, given how much charter coverage you have, you only need $894 to break even on those ships. Clearly, a great place to be gives you plenty of flexibility. With that, how does that shape your interest in fixing your vessels kind of going forward from here, at least into 2026? Do you keep what's available now to the spot market? Do you keep those free and open given you've got that, say, flexibility, or do you want to continue to put these ships on contract and fix your coverage out?

Eri Tsironi (CFO)

Let me just take you through, and I think Travelers will like to add a couple of things. One of the things we are doing is we use maximum flexibility. You will see that the vessels that are open for 2026, the majority is dry bulk. Basically, those vessels are, a lot of them are index-based with the premiums. We are actually very comfortable with how we are fixing that fleet and quarter forward, depending on what we assume on the market. This is a very nice position we are in. The majority of our container vessels have been fixed. Basically, that is the area where we see a lot of upside. We also are seeing for the first time after quite some period that we see also fixed period for dry bulk that we have not seen for some time.

With that, I'd like Stratos to give you a little bit of feedback.

Just to add to what Angeliki was saying, is that in 2026, assuming we said eventually all the containership is covered, so there's no exposure on that sector, which is a sector that has people are discussing a lot on the uncertainty. The majority, I would say more than 50% of the tankers are covered. So the majority of the exposure is indeed on the dry bulk. You see that with the contracted revenue, we only have $20 million to cover for the next year, and we have 23,400 days approximately, which basically is on the dry bulk sector. We have seen a very big strength on the dry bulk sector recently, with rates across all the sectors of dry bulk being very healthy. We have seen also the forward caps being very healthy.

The exposure that we have today provides a very good opportunity for us, and it shows how much of the upside you can have on this portfolio today.

Omar Nokta (Senior Equity Analyst)

Got it. Thank you, Stratos and Angeliki. Just to follow up, clearly, we're seeing a pretty healthy containership chartering market, and you've been able to take advantage of really good, strong, we would say, liner interest to build ships against contracts. You've been fairly active in recent years in that 5,000 to maybe, say, 9,000 TEU range. There's been some focus recently, or at least it feels like there's been a shift where liners are starting to look more at the feeder size, kind of in that sub-2,000 TEU size range. You don't have a big focus on that with your fleet today, but is that something you see an opportunity in? Are there opportunities to build these smaller ships against contracts, or is that more just talk at this point?

Eri Tsironi (CFO)

There is always projects, and I will tell you that we see a lot of activity in every site. What you have to be very careful is counterparty and duration because new building prices remain at the levels we have seen. It is very important, the signature, duration, residual value of the risk. We see increased activity. I mean, it is quite interesting that there is a focus. We see a lot of inefficiency in the market, the trading patterns. It seems that the smaller vessels give more flexibility to the liners in order to achieve this very ever-changing trading pattern, I'd say. It is almost on a yearly basis you will have new, I mean, we saw China-United States having a new one-year agreement. Basically, we see that it will happen in a lot of other areas.

You need to be alert, and smaller vessels give that flexibility.

Omar Nokta (Senior Equity Analyst)

That makes sense. Thank you. Okay. And then maybe just finally, you had the successful $300 million bond issue last month, unsecured, good rate. How are you thinking about those proceeds in terms of how you plan to deploy them?

Eri Tsironi (CFO)

As you said, I mean, accessing the market, the unsecured market, is quite important. It has not been open for quite some time, I think almost 10 years for the maritime section. What we achieved with that is we fixed our interest rate at 4.1% at 6.2. We got a diversification in our sources. Also, very importantly, we got $1.2 billion of debt-free vessels. Basically, our net debt is the same before and after. That gives us about $1 billion or $2 billion of debt-free vessels. That gives us the most important thing that we care, optionality. This is a nice part where we will see how you have $1.2 billion of your vessels or $6.6 billion, basically, that are mortgage-free.

Omar Nokta (Senior Equity Analyst)

Yes, certainly. Thanks, Angeliki. Very good. I'll turn it over.

Stratos Desypris (COO)

Thank you.

Eri Tsironi (CFO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. I will turn the call back to Angeliki for final comments.

Eri Tsironi (CFO)

Thank you. This completes our Q3 results.

Operator (participant)

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This does conclude today's program. Thank you for your participation, and you may disconnect at this time.