EuroDry Ltd.
Q3 2020 Earnings Call Transcript

Published: 14 Nov 2020

[Operator:]

Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the EuroDry conference call on the third-quarter 2020 financial results. We have with us today Mr. Pittas, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Mr. Aslidis, Chief Financial Officer of the company. . I must advise you that this conference is being recorded today. Please be reminded that the company announces its 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, EuroDry 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 risk and uncertainties that may result in such expectations not being realized. I kindly draw your attention to slide 2 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.

[Aristides Pittas:]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you all for joining us today for our scheduled conference call. Together with me, Tasos Aslidis, Chief Financial Officer. The purpose of today's call is to discuss our financial results for the third-quarter and nine-month period ended September 30, 2020. Please turn to slide 3. Our income statement highlights a solid year. For the third quarter of 2020, we reported total net revenues of $6.8 million and net income of $0.5 million, adjusted EBITDA of $2.8 million, and adjusted net income attributable to common shareholders of $0.1 million, or $0.05 per share. During the third quarter of 2020, EuroDry benefited from gradually improving charter market as a result of the reopening of most economies after the pandemic-related lockdowns. Since the beginning of October and during early November, the market rates have given up some of the gains, but they remain at satisfactory levels, given the increased economic uncertainty due to the second wave of the pandemic and renewed economic lockdowns, especially in Europe. Our CFO, Tasos Aslidis, will go over our financial highlights in more detail later on in the presentation. Please turn to slide 4 for our chartering and operational highlights. MV Eirini was fixed for period time charter at 99% of the Baltic Panamax Index for the 74,000 deadweight ton vessel average 4 time charter route, with a minimum duration until April 1, 2021, and a maximum duration of August 15, 202. The Starlight was fixed in direct continuation of the previous charter at 98.5% of the BPI 74 average 4TC index, with minimum duration until August 15, 2021, and maximum duration of January 15, 2022. The overall revenues of these two vessels received in Q3 -- and will receive in Q4 after taking into account the FFAs -- are actually fixed through the previously sold FFA contracts at an average rate of $11,000 per day. Additionally, we have sold FFAs for 30 days in Q1 2021 at a rate of $9,500 per day, providing a month's worth of cover overall for one vessel. There were no dry dockings or repairs for the third quarter. Please turn to slide 5 for a summary of EuroDry's current fleet. As you can see, it is comprised of seven drybulk vessels with a fleet average age of 11.8 years and a cargo carrying capacity of about 530,000 deadweight tons. Slide 6 shows the vessel employment schedule. As you can see, effective cargo reserves of October 26, 2020, for the remainder of 2020 stood at about 42% in terms of minimum fixed rate contracts, including the vessels that are covered by FFAs. This figure excludes ships or min fixed charters which are open to market fluctuations even though they might be secure -- having secure employment.

[Anastasios Aslidis:]

Thank you very much, Aristides. Good morning from me, as well, ladies and gentlemen. I will now take you through our financial results highlights for the three- and nine-month periods of 2020. For that, let's turn to slide 15. The third quarter of 2020, we reported total net revenues of $6.8 million, amounting to an 11.3% decrease as compared to total net revenues of $7.7 million that we achieved during the third quarter of last year. Our net revenues decreased by almost $0.9 million due to lower charter --- time charter equivalent rates on our vessel earned compared to the same period of last year. The company reported net income for the period of $0.5 million, and net income attributable to common shareholders of $0.1 million as compared to a net loss of $0.4 million, and net loss attributable to common shareholders of $0.8 million from the third quarter of 2019. Interest and other financing costs for the third quarter of this year amounted to $0.6 million compared to $0.8 million for the same period last year. Our interest expenses during the third quarter of 2020 were lower due to the lower average outstanding debt and also the decreased LIBOR rates that our loans experienced as compared, always, to the same period of 2019.

[Aristides Pittas:]

Thank you, Tasos. I can now open the floor for any questions that we may have.

[Operator:]

. Your first question comes from the line of Tate Sullivan from Maxim Group.

[Tate Sullivan:]

Thank you for the background. And one thing that jumped out was the extensions on -- I think it was five of your seven vessels to the contract timing. Can you give some feedback you get from customers? I mean, what keeps them from committing to longer terms when you have those contract extensions? I mean, if there is limited fleet growth next year and end of lockdowns, maybe should they start to have urgency, or can you give some comments on the feedback?

[Aristides Pittas:]

Yes, firstly, the older vessels in our fleet, the 2000 build ships, are ships that are not really favored by operators that want to have a period business. So these, we are trading on the spot market, and we expect to continue to trade them in the spot market. The remaining vessels, theoretically we could fix for longer periods. The medium age ships, the 2004 to 2005 build Panamaxes, could be fixed for up to a year. We see these kind of charters happening. For the younger ships, the under five years old, there exists a market for one, two years. It never goes for longer, really, on these type of ships. And we could consider ourselves fixing them for a year at this specific rate when we feel that the rate is good. Because right now, we have seen the correction in the charter rates, and because we think that 2021 -- at least from the third quarter, maybe even from the second quarter -- we will see improved charter rates, we prefer to keep shorter-term durations at today's levels.

[Tate Sullivan:]

Great. Thank you. And that tails with my next question. For 2021, you mentioned rates, I think you said around $10,400 today versus a breakeven of $9,850 a day. I thought you commented, next year, you see average rates settling -- did you say closer to where your rates were in 3Q 2020 or can you review that comment, please?

[Aristides Pittas:]

Yes, I mean it's a volatile period, as you've seen rates have moved this year from $6,000 up to $13,000, maybe even $14,000 on the spot market. So it's been very volatile. We think that the first part of 2021, because of the pandemic, will -- and the lockdowns that follow -- will not be a strong half. Certainly, the first quarter; now, the second quarter will depend a little bit on how the pandemic develops, and of course on if there are -- what happens with trade wars and all that stuff. But we do expect that starting either in the second or third quarter, we will see a higher rate. The average for the year, we expect it to be higher than what it is, what was the average of this year. It could be closer to the Q3 rate. It could be around the Q4 rate. It's really difficult to say, honestly, and make a better estimate.

[Tate Sullivan:]

Okay. Thank you for those comments.

[Operator:]

Your next question comes from the line of Poe Fratt from Noble Capital Markets.

[Poe Fratt:]

Hello. I just wanted to clarify --- Aristides, if you could just clarify your strategy on -- you are facing a little bit of weakness, near term. You look at softness in the first half and probably certainly in the first quarter of 2021 just because of seasonality, but you are using FFAs. But could you have covered more of the fleet with FFAs, looking into first quarter? Because right now, you only have 90 days of the fleet covered, and I was just wondering sort of what your strategy is. Do you think you'll layer on more FFAs as the year ends, or is that sort of you are going to just play the market from there?

[Aristides Pittas:]

Very honestly, Poe, our intention was to get more cover if we saw FFAs at $10,000 a day. So we would have taken more cover if we saw that. We didn't feel very comfortable in taking more cover at levels below our actual all-cost breakeven cost. So we were hoping that we would see them go up to $10,000 again, in which case we would take some additional cover. We haven't seen that; Q1 is trading right now at under $8,000 a day. We wouldn't do something at this level. But if there is a new peak that we see within November or early December, which is possible, and we see levels returning to those levels, we will indeed get some more FFA coverage.

[Poe Fratt:]

Yes. You will be opportunistic just based on what you see. Could you clarify the -- if you said it, I missed it -- but on the 42% of days that are covered in the fourth quarter, does that include the FFAs that are in place, or does that exclude them? And then if you could also offer potentially a rate that is associated with those with that contract cover of 42%?

[Aristides Pittas:]

I mean, it is included. This 42% includes the two vessels that will make $11,000 because they are covered through the FFAs. And it includes the Xenia Kamsarmax which is covered at $11,000 because it's a guaranteed floor. So it includes those three vessels really, and some part of the Tasos and the Pantelis whose charters expire now and we have not extended yet. So that is an average of $10,000 for those two, as well. So I would say that our average is slightly below $11,000 for the 42% that is covered, and the remaining is really open.

[Poe Fratt:]

Okay. And you do have that floor on the Xenia at $11,000, too, so is that included in there, or is it…?

[Aristides Pittas:]

Yes, that is included. Yes, that is included there.

[Poe Fratt:]

Okay, great. And then when you look at the contract on the Xenia that does -- it appears to expire at the end of the year. Can you sort of give us a flavor whether you will be able to, you think, keep that floor in place, or whether there will be a different structure in that contract?

[Aristides Pittas:]

No, this vessel will -- and its charter -- and we are due to pass the special survey of that ship. We could pass it in January, but we have decided that we will pass it immediately after completion of this current charter. And we will see how we will employ the ship afterwards. It doesn't have an employment.

[Poe Fratt:]

Okay. So that would be one special survey that you are looking at. Any other surveys…?

[Aristides Pittas:]

No, this is the only vessel that we will we need to pass through a survey in the coming quarter. And I think -- Tasos, if you have the figure, correct me -- but I think that we have nothing in Q1.

[Anastasios Aslidis:]

I believe sure that we don't have anything else in Q1.

[Poe Fratt:]

Great. And, Tasos, if we could just double check, it looks like the cost structure is pretty stable, looking forward. It has bounced around quarter to quarter a little bit. It looked like it was a little bit, at least from a G&A standpoint, down in third quarter. Are there any major changes? It doesn't sound like it, but I just wanted to double check

[Anastasios Aslidis:]

No, I don't expect we have any major structural changes on the OpEx side there. We should see OpEx at similar levels to this year, perhaps 1%, 1.5% higher, but no major changes.

[Poe Fratt:]

And I think you alluded to it on the balloon payment that is due in 2021, you are thinking about that. Are you actually in discussions with your banks on that loan payment and potentially extending that out?

[Anastasios Aslidis:]

That payment, we make in the next year, so we have not -- for that specific payment -- not in any discussions yet. But $8 million is less than half or about half of the scrap price of those vessels, which are not even near scrap price anyway. So I don't expect any problems to finance that at the current levels. At the balloon levels, we might even be able to get them in more if we want to.

[Poe Fratt:]

Great, thank you so much.

[Operator:]

Thank you. I would now like to have the conference back to the CEO, Mr. Aristides Pittas. Please continue, sir.

[Aristides Pittas:]

I think this concludes our session of today. Thank you all for listening in, and we will talk together again in February when we come out with our results for 2020. Thank you.

[Anastasios Aslidis:]

Thanks, everybody, for attending.

[Operator:]

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