NYSE:TEN Tsakos Energy Navigation Q3 2023 Earnings Report $16.23 +0.56 (+3.59%) Closing price 04/17/2025 03:58 PM EasternExtended Trading$16.23 0.00 (-0.02%) As of 04/17/2025 06:10 PM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. Earnings HistoryForecast Tsakos Energy Navigation EPS ResultsActual EPS$0.83Consensus EPS N/ABeat/MissN/AOne Year Ago EPSN/ATsakos Energy Navigation Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$152.40 millionExpected Revenue$166.10 millionBeat/MissMissed by -$13.70 millionYoY Revenue GrowthN/ATsakos Energy Navigation Announcement DetailsQuarterQ3 2023Date11/21/2023TimeN/AConference Call DateTuesday, November 21, 2023Conference Call Time10:00AM ETUpcoming EarningsTsakos Energy Navigation's Q1 2025 earnings is scheduled for Thursday, June 19, 2025, with a conference call scheduled at 10:00 AM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckPress Release (8-K)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by Tsakos Energy Navigation Q3 2023 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrNovember 21, 2023 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 9 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Sapo's Energy Navigation Conference Call on the Q3 2023 Financial Results. We have with us Mr. Takis Zarekoglu, Chairman of the Board Doctor. Nicholas Tsakos, President and CEO Mr. Paul Durham, Chief Financial Officer and Mr. Operator00:00:19George Saroglou, Chief Operating 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. I must advise you that this conference call is being recorded today. I will now pass the floor to Mr. Operator00:00:42Nicholas Bornozas, President of Capital Link, Investor Relations Advisor of Tsakos Energy Navigation. Please go ahead, sir. Speaker 100:00:51Thank you very much, and good morning to all of our participants. I am Nicolas Bornaris of Capital Link, Investor Relations Advisor to Tsakos Energy Navigation. This morning, the company publicly released its financial results for the 9 months and third quarter ended September 30, 2023. In case you do not have a copy of today's earnings release, please call us at 212 6,671,566 or e mail us at 10 pencapitallink.com, and we will have a copy for you e mailed right away. Please note That's parallel to today's conference call, there is also a live audio and slide webcast, which can be accessed on the company's website on the front page at www.tenn.gr. Speaker 100:01:49The conference call will follow the presentation slide. So please, we urge you to access the presentation slides on the company's website. Please note The slides of the webcast presentation will be available and archived on the website of the company after the conference call. Also, please note that the slides are user controlled, and that means that by clicking on the proper button, you can move to the next or to the previous slide on your own. At this time, I would like to read the Safe Harbor statement. Speaker 100:02:20This conference call and slide presentation of the webcast contain certain forward looking statements within the meaning of the Safe Harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The investors are cautioned that such forward looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, which may affect TEN's business prospects and results from operations. And at this moment, I would like to pass the floor to Mr. Arapoglou, the Chairman of Tsakos and its Renovation. Mr. Speaker 100:02:50Rapopoglou, please go ahead, sir. Speaker 200:02:54Thank you, Nicholas. Good morning and good afternoon to all, and thank you for joining our Q3 results call today. Congratulations once again to Nikos Tsakos and management for yet another set of excellent results. Ben is once again perfectly positioned to benefit from a buoyant market, a very strong market despite a short slowdown earlier on. Typically, you have seen us gearing up, Raising capital in weak markets in a countercyclical way to invest and position ourselves for better markets. Speaker 200:03:36And when As the markets arrive, we generate healthy equity, deleverage, sell all the tonnage, repay obligations and invest for sustained growth in best in class state of the art vessels. This model successfully tested several times now, coupled with superior operating performance and efficiencies, which you are familiar with, allows us to be able to maintain our unbroken record of paying dividends to reward our investors and to grow in a balanced and sustainable way. So once again, congratulations to Nikos Tsakos and his team. That's it for me for now. And I pass the floor to our CEO, Nikos Tsakos. Speaker 200:04:28Thank you. Speaker 300:04:31Well, thank you, Chairman, and good morning to all of you and good afternoon to those from this side Of the growth, the 9 month 2023 has been A very, I would say, interesting year for our business, a year of development, a year of also growth and renewing our fleet. Looking at our results for the 9 months, they are Very strong, very impressive. We have been able to produce so far and the year is not over, Paul, in excess of $8 $8.20 per share of net income. And I think we must be one of the few companies that we would be trading at At twice net income, if we continue this way, hopefully, we will be able to Have a much better multiple very soon. The traditional third quarter, The traditional weaker Q3 was exactly the same this year. Speaker 300:05:50And we had the If you exclude the I-eight vessels which we renewed our fleet with earlier in the year, we have the exact Same results as we had a year ago with a time charter average both for the Q3 of 'twenty two and both and this year of approximately averaging over the 9 month period end of Q3 period around the $31,000 per day mark. So I think The reduction in actual net income from quarter to quarter is actually the 8 vessels And I would say, as Paul will come, an increase of interest rates that we are seeing in the market. However, Soon after the end of Q3, the market has turned in a stronger than expected way. We are seeing the right now spot market rates for every type of ship. This is the first time that every single type of vessel is earning approximately between $60,000 $80,000 a day on the spot market. Speaker 300:07:06And we are very well diversified and positioned our fleet. We have, I would say, Almost 50% vessels on the spot are spot related and 50% vessels at very high fixed Employment. We took advantage of the strong market on the beginning of the year and we are either rechartered or renewed or Agreed new charters on 26 of our vessels with an average of 2.5 years, All of them in excess of 50% higher than their previous earnings in that respect. So Looking forward, we expect that the remaining of the year is going to be strong. And that's why we have also At the same time, increased our dividend and hopefully, being the major shareholders here, we will have A very similar situation going forward for the remaining of the year and for 2024. Speaker 300:08:12The prospects in the market are good. Still a very small newbuilding order book, one of the smallest I've seen in my Carrier over 30 years and on top of that a lot of challenges in our business that make the environmental Issues that are coming ahead will require a lot of perhaps slow speeding changings of routes going forward. At the same time, we're seeing issues that we don't other than the geopolitical issues, We're seeing global warming taking its toll in the Panama Canal and restrictions being placed, More vessels choosing to rather navigate around the Capes rather than using the Panama Canal, which further increases the ton miles. So in general, we are expecting a positive environment for the near future. And with that, I would like to ask Mr. Speaker 300:09:19Saroglou to give us a little bit more details. Speaker 400:09:24Thank you, Nikos. Good morning to all of you joining our earnings call today. 2023, as you know, is the year we celebrate our 30th anniversary as a public company. And this morning, we report the unaudited financial results for the Q3 9 months of 2023. We have experienced, as Mr. Speaker 400:09:44Tsakos said, the usual seasonal summer lull, but since September the market rebounded, and as we speak, we continue to enjoy A strong freight market as a result of robust global oil demand growth, positive tanker market fundamentals and changes in freight routes and growth in ton mile demand. What started last year, we continue to see it. We experienced the largest change in trade flows to ongoing crude and oil product movements as a result of Western sanctions on Russian seaborne oil. And as these changes appear to be permanent, because before the war in Ukraine, Europe was the biggest client of Russian oil, but as the war continues, Russian oil was replaced with oil from the United States of America, from West Africa, Guyana, Brazil and the Middle East, creating positive ton mile multiplier effect for tanker demand and freight rates. At the same time, tanker newbuildings continue to enjoy low single digit growth numbers with new orders being less than 7% of the existing fleet. Speaker 400:10:52Many yards report availability from 2026 onwards. Global oil demand Continues to grow, boosted by the post COVID global recovery and more recently by strong summer air travel and increased Oil used in power generation and surging petrochemical activity, mainly in China. The latest November forecast from the International Energy Agency has revised global oil demand growth for 2023 from 2 point 2,000,000 to 2,400,000 barrels per day. And as we are a month and a half before the end of the year, this demand growth figure suggests that we will reach an all time high for global oil demand in 2023 of 102,000,000 barrels per day. There are also global headwinds like the high inflation, the tightening of global financial conditions. Speaker 400:11:51We might end up with higher interest rates for longer. The war in Ukraine, the war in Gaza And the OPEC plus production cuts and voluntary cuts by Saudi Arabia on top of the initial production cuts, The voluntary cuts by Saudi Arabia and Russia until the end of the year and possibly into the Q1 of next year. However, The global economy is expected to continue growing in 2023. The forecast is for 3% growth and 2.9% in 2024. And oil demand is expected to continue growing in 2024 next year. Speaker 400:12:30This view is served by both OPEC and the International Energy Agency, 2 main oil market prognosticators. Venezuela got a 6 month relaxation on U. S. Sanctions and could be on a slow comeback road to increase production in international point markets, while Latin America, Guyana, Brazil And Surinam expand their oil production as they continue to develop offshore oilfields. And Having growth in the Atlantic basin is very good because most of this oil is not just going to Europe, but also to Asia, and this has a multiplying effect on ton mile growth. Speaker 400:13:11And as we said, also tanker fundamentals continue to favor a strong tanker market for the next 2, 3 years. The company took delivery in September and recently in October of the company's first two Dual fuel Aframax tankers that opened a new chapter for 10, being the first two LNG powered conventional tankers In a newbuilding order of 4, Zaten operates for a significant European oil concern against long term charters. If we move to the slides of the presentation, starting with Slide 3, we see that since inception, we have faced Five major crisis and each time the company came out stronger, thanks to its operating model. Recently, we came out of the COVID pandemic, and we continue to navigate the challenges created by the geopolitical wars in Ukraine and elsewhere. The fundamentals, very low tanker order book, the aging fleet and post COVID oil demand recovery, Even without the tragic wars, we're positive for the tanker industry. Speaker 400:14:18The Western sanction and price cap imposed on Russian seaborne oil as a result of the war served as an additional catalyst to propel freight rates higher as long established trade routes were disrupted and voyage distances elongated. Almost all of the Russian volumes are now flowing long haul to India and China. At the same time, U. S. Crude oil exports have gone up from averaging about 3,800,000 barrels per day last year to about 4,800,000 barrels per day now. Speaker 400:14:49In Slide 4, We see the company's fleet growth and capital market access since inception. We raise capital for growth, not at the top of the market, but at times when asset prices are usually low. In the slide In this slide, the numbers in the blue boxes present the company's common share offerings and in red, The series of preferred self offering since the company's New York Stock Exchange listing. The first three preferred series Have totaling $188,000,000 of par value, the Series B, C and D, Plus, a privately placed preferred instrument of $35,000,000 initial par value have been fully redeemed as we speak, saving the company excess of $18,000,000 per year of coupon payments for all these retired preferred series. In the next slide, we see the fleet and its current fleet employment. Speaker 400:15:49We have an operational fleet of 60 vessels. 51 out of the 60 vessels or 52 percent of the fleet in the water has market exposure, a combination of spot and time chartered with profit sharing, 46 out of the 60 vessels or 77% are in secured contracts, fixed time charters and time charters with profit sharing. This means that TEN is well positioned to continue capturing the positive tanker market fundamentals. Any divestment of early generation vessels, as we have done in the Q1 of the year, With the 62,005 Build Emars and the 2006 Build Hardysize product tankers will be replaced and have been replaced with Modern, eco friendly, greener vessel. TEM has currently a new building program of 8 tankers consisting of 2 shuttle tankers for delivery during 2025, 2 remaining dual LNG powered Aframaxes for delivery during the Q1 of 2024, 2 eco friendly scrubber fitted Suezmaxes for delivery also in 2025 and 2 scrubber fitted MR tankers for delivery in early 2026. Speaker 400:17:03Except of the 2 Suezmaxes that will be delivered after 2 years and Slide 6 presents the company's current and long term clients. As you see, we have a blue chip customer base consisting of 4 major global energy companies, Refineries, commodity traders, with Equinor currently topping the list as our largest charter with 11 vessels and and 2 new buildings all on long term time charters. The left side of Slide 7 presents the all in breakeven course for the various vessel types we operate in TEN. Our operating model is simple. We try to have our time charter vessels generate revenue to cover the company's cash expenses, Paying for the vessel operating expenses, finance expenses, overheads, chartering costs and commissions, and we let the revenue from the spot trading vessels contribute to the profitability of the company. Speaker 400:18:10Fleet utilization for the 9 months amounted to 95.6%, which is a very strong number. And thanks to the profit sharing element for every $1,000 per day increase in spot rates, it has a positive $0.18 impact in annual EPS based on the number of 10 vessels that currently have exposure to spot rates. Debt reduction is an integral part of the company's capital allocation strategy. The company debt picked in December of 2016. Since then, we have repaid $355,000,000 of debt and redeemed $211,000,000 in 3 series of preferred shares plus a privately placed preferred instrument. Speaker 400:18:57In Slide number 9, we see the historical performance of the company since 2004. I would like to highlight the revenue growth as the fleet increased during this period, the changes in EBITDA as the company navigated the ups and of the shipping market in this 20 year period, the bottom line profitability and the strong cash reserves that we have maintained. Last year was a record year for the financial performance of TEN. We expect an equally strong performance for 2023. In addition to paying down debt, dividend continuity is important for common shareholders and management. Speaker 400:19:39TEN has always paid and dividend irrespective of the market cycle. Our dividend policy is semi annual. Following the June 2023 October 2023 payments, the latter being a special dividend. As we previously announced, we will pay a dividend of $0.30 per common share on December 20 to holders of record as of December 14, 2023. This distribution reflects The 2nd regular semiannual payment in 2023, in line with 10 semiannual dividend policy. Speaker 400:20:14Overall, for 2023, the total dividend distribution of $1 per common share is 4 times the $0.25 per common share distributed to the company's shareholder in 2022. Following this year's Last dividend payment in December, the company would have distributed in excess of $528,000,000 to its common shareholder since the New York Stock Exchange listing in 2002. And if we add the dividends paid to the holders of the company's preferred shares since 2013, The year the 1st Series B was issued, then 10 has returned in excess of $800,000,000 to both common and preferred shareholders of the company. Global oil demand continues to grow. Despite financial and geopolitical headwinds, The International Energy Agency expects global oil demand to grow by approximately 2,400,000 barrels per day, reaching 102,000,000 barrels per day, a record number in 2023. Speaker 400:21:20Most of the growth is coming from the Asia Pacific region, mainly China. On the supply side, most of the growth this year is coming from non OPEC plus countries, Brazil, the United States of America, Guyana, Canada, Mexico, Norway. As global oil demand continues to grow, let's look at the forecast for the supply of tankers. The order book as of October 23 stands Our 856 tankers over the next 3 years or 6.7%, which is one of the lowest numbers in the last 20 years. At the same time, a big part of the fleet, almost 40%, is over 15 years And 661 tankers or 12.4 percent is currently over 20 years. Speaker 400:22:12The next slide shows the scrapping activity since 2018. For this year, scrapping is low, but with upcoming regulations An industry in the first phases of decarbonization and more than 12.4% of the fleet over 20 years, We believe that scrapping is going to pick up. Overall, all these factors point to a very balanced tanker supply market for the next few years. And with that, I will ask Paul to walk you through the financial highlights of the 9 months of the year. Speaker 500:22:46Paul? Thank you, George. I'll just add a few words relating to the 9 months Ending in September, in a year that has enjoyed considerable success for TEN and which continues to enjoy strong rates as the new year approaches. Net income for the 9 month period amounted to $272,000,000 While operating income for the 9 years increased by 160%, EBITDA amounted to approximately $370,000,000 adjusted, a significant increase by 90 percent. The average daily TCE for the 9 months was over $37,000 up from $27,000 in the prior 9 month period, a substantial increase Compared to the prior year period, helped by profit share arrangements, providing nearly $60,000,000 in the 9 months and with almost every vessel fully employed apart from 7 in drydock. Speaker 500:24:15Voyage revenues amounted to nearly $700,000,000 a 13% increase over the prior year. Our overhead expenses per day per vessel continue to remain stable at only $1,600,000 Total finance costs in the 9 month period amounted to $73,000,000 an aberration due to interest rate hikes and to inflationary causes. Finally, our debt to capital was about 49%, a comfortable ratio partially helped by scheduled loan repayments of $140,000,000 and redeemed preferred shares totaling over $100,000,000 Our new buildings are on target to meet delivery and related financing has now been covered. Our current optimism relates partly to the forthcoming months and is supported by our significant cash reserves and a promising global decline in inflation. And now I'll give the phone back to Nikolas. Speaker 300:25:38Paul, thank you for your good news, and it's good that everything is adding up in a positive way. I think as it was mentioned from our President and our CFO, The current market, the spot market is, I would say, at all time Strong high in all segments. It's a surprising situation where both the smaller clean trade The investments together with anything between SureSmax, Vertices and Aframax are lower earning between $60,000 to $80,000 a day On the spot, and of course, this gives us a lot of comfort with our profit arrangements and our 50% Spot exposure. So having right now 35 vessels in spot related markets, As George said, it's almost $0.20 per every $1,000 it's $0.20 to our bottom line. The result up to now of $8.18 I think it's very, very positive and very soon this will be reflecting to our share price and of course it will give us More confidence to continue our dividend distributions. Speaker 300:27:01Looking back this year, we have already, other than the $30,000,000 of dividend that will be paid in excess of $100,000,000 $108,000,000 has been paid back to our preferred buying back our preferred shares and that Immediately brings to a bottom line a saving of $9,000,000 for next year. So overall, we have returned more than In this period of time, more than $140,000,000 back to our for our preferred and common shareholders. And of course, we maintain a very strong balance sheet that allows us to look at Possibilities of expanding our fleet with modern tonnage. We showed 8 vessels. We have 8 vessels coming already to delivery of 2. Speaker 300:27:59Show out of our 10 environmental friendly new building. The prospects going forward, as our President said, we have A very low order book, increasing demand, a growing gray fleet that goes Anywhere between 250 to 300 vessels that are not participating in the day to day market with the major oil companies, new legislation that is coming up that is making slow steaming and restrict Traveling on navigation, positive in increasing ton miles and of course natural Limitations like Panama Canal restrictions that are making many owners taking more ton miles and trading around the gate. So in view for sure, I think the Q4 this year is going to be our 30th year is going to be another record year like last year was. And the prospects, at least for the next couple of years, considering the limited new building supply, are positive. And with that, I would like to open the floor in case anybody would like to ask some specific questions. Speaker 200:29:20Thank you. Operator00:29:21We will now be conducting a question and answer session. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question It may be necessary to pick up your hands up before questions at the Thank you. Our first question is from Shareef Almagrobi with BTIG, please proceed with your question. Speaker 600:29:59The first question, earlier this week, we saw some VLCCs go on multiyear time charters at above the historical average rates. And obviously, you've been active in the charter market. So I'm wondering if you're seeing much interest from charterers for 3 year plus contracts? Or is the opportunity there pretty thin? Speaker 300:30:21I would say, as we are speaking, my phone actually is ringing with charterers. We're Getting messages from our charter lease department from our London office in Singapore getting offers of this short. There is a lot of appetite right now for 3 to 5 years on modern tonnage As we have our 2 Suezmaxes that are being built there for next year, they're big contenders of very strong interest for those ships. So yes, you are right. There is an appetite. Speaker 300:30:52There is an expectation for major oil companies that we are going to be seeing Stronger rates and I think what happened as the seasonal third quarter, which is the weakest quarter came to an end, As George said, we have seen a very strong market demand in all categories of ships. Usually, I mean, the clean started going about a month ago. The clean market started getting strong. And I think now the dirty market, when I say the larger ships, are following up in a big way. So yes, you are right, there is a lot of demand for 3 to 5 year employment for good quality operators and Relatively more than tonnage. Speaker 600:31:35And then on the clean side, a few Middle Eastern refineries They have been ramping capacity or are going to start ramping capacity this year and next. Has that started to shift trade flows for product tankers? Or Are you not seeing a shift in volumes there yet? Speaker 300:31:52Yes. I mean, we are seeing the larger capacity Middle East sorry, Far Eastern Refineries filling those gaps and that's why perhaps you have seen the LR2s which are not usually Far Eastern traders earning very hefty rates bringing refiners to either to Europe or even to refiners in the Middle East. Speaker 600:32:20That's helpful. Thanks for taking my questions. Speaker 300:32:23Thank you. Operator00:32:25Thank you. Our next question is from Omar Khotsa with Jefferies. Please proceed with your question. Speaker 100:32:32Thank you. Hi, guys. Just a couple Speaker 700:32:33for me. Perhaps just as a follow-up to the initial discussion on the time charters, I wanted to just sort of ask about fleet deployment from here. I know in the release you mentioned charters being more active, looking for long term charters, which, Nick, you just highlighted again. But clearly, there's a with long term contracts, there's a sign of conviction that this market is going to be elevated for some time. So in terms of how you deploy your fleet from here, you mentioned having the 35 ships on the spot market. Speaker 700:33:03But I guess as you think about this as we move into 'twenty four and onwards. How do you want to deploy the fleet? Do you want to stay as spot exposed as you are currently? Do you want to shift more towards index linked? Or do you prefer perhaps to secure long term charters at fixed rates at elevated fixed rates? Speaker 300:33:22Well, it has to do with case by case, by the quality. If we have a new charter or very quality with whom we do not have A very long relationship, we might consider doing longer employment, but currently we are existing Long term business on our existing fleet, because as you said, the market is quite good. And I think we have a very good buffer On the ships that we have right now, the 33 ships that are on time charter. And I mean, we're always looking at pulling and profit sharing arrangements, which we encourage. Speaker 700:34:04Okay. Thank you. And Just perhaps maybe a little bit more random, but just looking at your fleet list, there's the Lisboa Suezmax. And if I recall, that's a shuttle tanker. It rolls off charter in the first half of twenty twenty five, so it's still a bit away, call it, say, a year or year plus. Speaker 700:34:21But we just want to know in terms of how you think about that vessel in particular duties. Do you think that that ship will continue operating on the shuttle tanker? Or do you see it penetrating as a conventional once that contract is over. Speaker 300:34:37Well, as we speak today, and we have a big team of our a big Part of our team looking at the markets, the South American markets are not only I think there's a big appetite For shuttle tankers to continue their business as shuttle tankers. However, the ships we have built and operate perhaps to us as efficiently and as profitably as Suezmaxes. But I believe that the ship will continue Trading at this very demanding shuttle market that are growing right now. Speaker 700:35:20Okay, good. And then just final one for me is that on the 2 MRs that you ordered recently, Those deliver in 2026, but they're scheduled to. Just wanted to ask, do you have options that came with those orders? And then is there any detail you can give in terms of when you need to exercise those or what delivery time frames we would be looking at if you did exercise them? Speaker 300:35:45Yes. I mean, we have options for those ships and we have options for in the first half of next year of dual fuel versions of those ships also. So this is what we're our technical department Is analyzing together with our clients. Speaker 700:36:05Okay. And delivery time frame, because if I recall, when you Placed those orders. It was a pretty attractive delivery slot in the early part of 'twenty six. Do you still get deliveries in 'twenty six, If you were to Speaker 300:36:18ask further along. Later part of 'twenty six, if someone is interested for a later part of 'twenty six. Operator00:36:33Thank you. Our next question is from Clement Mullen with Value Investors Edge. Please proceed with your question. Speaker 800:36:41Good morning or afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. I wanted to start by asking about your FEED Renewal efforts. You've been clear on your intention to continue to sell older vessels and reinvest proceeds on modern tonnage. However, There haven't been that many transactions on the Echo side of the fleet. Speaker 800:36:59Do you expect liquidity to increase going forward? And secondly, How do you think about the trade off between high asset pricing and the need to renew the fleet? Speaker 300:37:13That's a very, very good question because what you usually say in shipping is that you should not be selling at the same time that You're buying. And so I think your point is very Speaker 400:37:26well timed. However, Speaker 300:37:29we are A client driven organization, we are a continue we're more of an industrial play owner. We have sold at least 8 vessels since the beginning of the year at very hefty prices. And then we decided instead of buying vessels in the spot market to Order our future with a very modern ship. So I mean, as long as we are able to have good employment cover For the vessels that we will be buying that will have very good returns going forward and amortize those ships. We will still continue with this model, selling older vessels at this market And looking at good quality, perhaps dual fuel or other vessels with short employment that will, first of all, reduce Significantly, our age profile, which is already young and reduce our footprint. Speaker 800:38:40That's helpful. Thank you. I also wanted to ask about operating expenses on a per day basis, which increased quite a bit quarter over quarter. As we think about the run rate going forward, should we expect them to trend Closer to $9,000 or $9,500 per day. And secondly, could you give us some commentary on what were the biggest drivers behind the increase? Speaker 300:39:04Yes. And Paul can take you more into details, but I will give you the basic ideas. First of all is that We are right now running a fleet of much larger vessels. So I mean that has Last year's fleet, we had our vessels were 8 vessels of the handysize that brought our daily operating expenses lower. This year, we had the drydockings of our larger ships in Portugal. Speaker 300:39:46And of course, we are running a fleet of much larger vessels. So the average naturally will go higher, but it will normalize, I think, within the year. Speaker 800:40:11Thank you. Operator00:40:12There are no further questions at this time. I will hand the floor back over to Doctor. Nicholas Tsakos for any closing comments. Speaker 300:40:22First of all, thank you. Thank you very much for asking. I know you're all Very, very busy wrapping up for a very exciting and hopefully peaceful family Thanksgiving. And thank you for taking the time to be with us Today, we're looking forward to report even better results and a very exciting full year in sometime early in the Q1. We will be we are happy to have A Christmas holiday dividend for everybody in December that our President has said on the 20th of December. Speaker 300:41:05And with that, I will ask also our Chairman, Tyche, Thank you for your closing remarks and I wish everybody a very happy Thanksgiving. Speaker 200:41:16Thank you. Thank you, Nico. As you said, in view of the continued buoyant market, we expect to have very strong results for the year and equally strong results going forward. I hope that all these good prospects described today will soon be reflected in our stock price. And best wishes for a happy Thanksgiving to all. Speaker 200:41:44Thank you.Read morePowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallTsakos Energy Navigation Q3 202300:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2x Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckPress Release(8-K) Tsakos Energy Navigation Earnings HeadlinesTEN Ltd. Announces the Filing of Form 20-F With the SECApril 15, 2025 | globenewswire.comTEN Ltd. 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Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Tsakos Energy Navigation and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About Tsakos Energy NavigationTsakos Energy Navigation (NYSE:TEN). engages in the provision of seaborne crude oil and petroleum product transportation services. Its activities include the operation of crude tankers, product tankers, and liquefied natural gas carriers. The company was founded by Nikolas P. Tsakos and Michael Gordon Jolliffee in July 1993 and is headquartered in Athens, Greece.View Tsakos Energy Navigation ProfileRead more More Earnings Resources from MarketBeat Earnings Tools Today's Earnings Tomorrow's Earnings Next Week's Earnings Upcoming Earnings Calls Earnings Newsletter Earnings Call Transcripts Earnings Beats & Misses Corporate Guidance Earnings Screener Earnings By Country U.S. Earnings Reports Canadian Earnings Reports U.K. Earnings Reports Latest Articles Archer Aviation Unveils NYC Network Ahead of Key Earnings Report3 Reasons to Like the Look of Amazon Ahead of EarningsTesla Stock Eyes Breakout With Earnings on DeckJohnson & Johnson Earnings Were More Good Than Bad—Time to Buy? 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There are 9 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Sapo's Energy Navigation Conference Call on the Q3 2023 Financial Results. We have with us Mr. Takis Zarekoglu, Chairman of the Board Doctor. Nicholas Tsakos, President and CEO Mr. Paul Durham, Chief Financial Officer and Mr. Operator00:00:19George Saroglou, Chief Operating 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. I must advise you that this conference call is being recorded today. I will now pass the floor to Mr. Operator00:00:42Nicholas Bornozas, President of Capital Link, Investor Relations Advisor of Tsakos Energy Navigation. Please go ahead, sir. Speaker 100:00:51Thank you very much, and good morning to all of our participants. I am Nicolas Bornaris of Capital Link, Investor Relations Advisor to Tsakos Energy Navigation. This morning, the company publicly released its financial results for the 9 months and third quarter ended September 30, 2023. In case you do not have a copy of today's earnings release, please call us at 212 6,671,566 or e mail us at 10 pencapitallink.com, and we will have a copy for you e mailed right away. Please note That's parallel to today's conference call, there is also a live audio and slide webcast, which can be accessed on the company's website on the front page at www.tenn.gr. Speaker 100:01:49The conference call will follow the presentation slide. So please, we urge you to access the presentation slides on the company's website. Please note The slides of the webcast presentation will be available and archived on the website of the company after the conference call. Also, please note that the slides are user controlled, and that means that by clicking on the proper button, you can move to the next or to the previous slide on your own. At this time, I would like to read the Safe Harbor statement. Speaker 100:02:20This conference call and slide presentation of the webcast contain certain forward looking statements within the meaning of the Safe Harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The investors are cautioned that such forward looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, which may affect TEN's business prospects and results from operations. And at this moment, I would like to pass the floor to Mr. Arapoglou, the Chairman of Tsakos and its Renovation. Mr. Speaker 100:02:50Rapopoglou, please go ahead, sir. Speaker 200:02:54Thank you, Nicholas. Good morning and good afternoon to all, and thank you for joining our Q3 results call today. Congratulations once again to Nikos Tsakos and management for yet another set of excellent results. Ben is once again perfectly positioned to benefit from a buoyant market, a very strong market despite a short slowdown earlier on. Typically, you have seen us gearing up, Raising capital in weak markets in a countercyclical way to invest and position ourselves for better markets. Speaker 200:03:36And when As the markets arrive, we generate healthy equity, deleverage, sell all the tonnage, repay obligations and invest for sustained growth in best in class state of the art vessels. This model successfully tested several times now, coupled with superior operating performance and efficiencies, which you are familiar with, allows us to be able to maintain our unbroken record of paying dividends to reward our investors and to grow in a balanced and sustainable way. So once again, congratulations to Nikos Tsakos and his team. That's it for me for now. And I pass the floor to our CEO, Nikos Tsakos. Speaker 200:04:28Thank you. Speaker 300:04:31Well, thank you, Chairman, and good morning to all of you and good afternoon to those from this side Of the growth, the 9 month 2023 has been A very, I would say, interesting year for our business, a year of development, a year of also growth and renewing our fleet. Looking at our results for the 9 months, they are Very strong, very impressive. We have been able to produce so far and the year is not over, Paul, in excess of $8 $8.20 per share of net income. And I think we must be one of the few companies that we would be trading at At twice net income, if we continue this way, hopefully, we will be able to Have a much better multiple very soon. The traditional third quarter, The traditional weaker Q3 was exactly the same this year. Speaker 300:05:50And we had the If you exclude the I-eight vessels which we renewed our fleet with earlier in the year, we have the exact Same results as we had a year ago with a time charter average both for the Q3 of 'twenty two and both and this year of approximately averaging over the 9 month period end of Q3 period around the $31,000 per day mark. So I think The reduction in actual net income from quarter to quarter is actually the 8 vessels And I would say, as Paul will come, an increase of interest rates that we are seeing in the market. However, Soon after the end of Q3, the market has turned in a stronger than expected way. We are seeing the right now spot market rates for every type of ship. This is the first time that every single type of vessel is earning approximately between $60,000 $80,000 a day on the spot market. Speaker 300:07:06And we are very well diversified and positioned our fleet. We have, I would say, Almost 50% vessels on the spot are spot related and 50% vessels at very high fixed Employment. We took advantage of the strong market on the beginning of the year and we are either rechartered or renewed or Agreed new charters on 26 of our vessels with an average of 2.5 years, All of them in excess of 50% higher than their previous earnings in that respect. So Looking forward, we expect that the remaining of the year is going to be strong. And that's why we have also At the same time, increased our dividend and hopefully, being the major shareholders here, we will have A very similar situation going forward for the remaining of the year and for 2024. Speaker 300:08:12The prospects in the market are good. Still a very small newbuilding order book, one of the smallest I've seen in my Carrier over 30 years and on top of that a lot of challenges in our business that make the environmental Issues that are coming ahead will require a lot of perhaps slow speeding changings of routes going forward. At the same time, we're seeing issues that we don't other than the geopolitical issues, We're seeing global warming taking its toll in the Panama Canal and restrictions being placed, More vessels choosing to rather navigate around the Capes rather than using the Panama Canal, which further increases the ton miles. So in general, we are expecting a positive environment for the near future. And with that, I would like to ask Mr. Speaker 300:09:19Saroglou to give us a little bit more details. Speaker 400:09:24Thank you, Nikos. Good morning to all of you joining our earnings call today. 2023, as you know, is the year we celebrate our 30th anniversary as a public company. And this morning, we report the unaudited financial results for the Q3 9 months of 2023. We have experienced, as Mr. Speaker 400:09:44Tsakos said, the usual seasonal summer lull, but since September the market rebounded, and as we speak, we continue to enjoy A strong freight market as a result of robust global oil demand growth, positive tanker market fundamentals and changes in freight routes and growth in ton mile demand. What started last year, we continue to see it. We experienced the largest change in trade flows to ongoing crude and oil product movements as a result of Western sanctions on Russian seaborne oil. And as these changes appear to be permanent, because before the war in Ukraine, Europe was the biggest client of Russian oil, but as the war continues, Russian oil was replaced with oil from the United States of America, from West Africa, Guyana, Brazil and the Middle East, creating positive ton mile multiplier effect for tanker demand and freight rates. At the same time, tanker newbuildings continue to enjoy low single digit growth numbers with new orders being less than 7% of the existing fleet. Speaker 400:10:52Many yards report availability from 2026 onwards. Global oil demand Continues to grow, boosted by the post COVID global recovery and more recently by strong summer air travel and increased Oil used in power generation and surging petrochemical activity, mainly in China. The latest November forecast from the International Energy Agency has revised global oil demand growth for 2023 from 2 point 2,000,000 to 2,400,000 barrels per day. And as we are a month and a half before the end of the year, this demand growth figure suggests that we will reach an all time high for global oil demand in 2023 of 102,000,000 barrels per day. There are also global headwinds like the high inflation, the tightening of global financial conditions. Speaker 400:11:51We might end up with higher interest rates for longer. The war in Ukraine, the war in Gaza And the OPEC plus production cuts and voluntary cuts by Saudi Arabia on top of the initial production cuts, The voluntary cuts by Saudi Arabia and Russia until the end of the year and possibly into the Q1 of next year. However, The global economy is expected to continue growing in 2023. The forecast is for 3% growth and 2.9% in 2024. And oil demand is expected to continue growing in 2024 next year. Speaker 400:12:30This view is served by both OPEC and the International Energy Agency, 2 main oil market prognosticators. Venezuela got a 6 month relaxation on U. S. Sanctions and could be on a slow comeback road to increase production in international point markets, while Latin America, Guyana, Brazil And Surinam expand their oil production as they continue to develop offshore oilfields. And Having growth in the Atlantic basin is very good because most of this oil is not just going to Europe, but also to Asia, and this has a multiplying effect on ton mile growth. Speaker 400:13:11And as we said, also tanker fundamentals continue to favor a strong tanker market for the next 2, 3 years. The company took delivery in September and recently in October of the company's first two Dual fuel Aframax tankers that opened a new chapter for 10, being the first two LNG powered conventional tankers In a newbuilding order of 4, Zaten operates for a significant European oil concern against long term charters. If we move to the slides of the presentation, starting with Slide 3, we see that since inception, we have faced Five major crisis and each time the company came out stronger, thanks to its operating model. Recently, we came out of the COVID pandemic, and we continue to navigate the challenges created by the geopolitical wars in Ukraine and elsewhere. The fundamentals, very low tanker order book, the aging fleet and post COVID oil demand recovery, Even without the tragic wars, we're positive for the tanker industry. Speaker 400:14:18The Western sanction and price cap imposed on Russian seaborne oil as a result of the war served as an additional catalyst to propel freight rates higher as long established trade routes were disrupted and voyage distances elongated. Almost all of the Russian volumes are now flowing long haul to India and China. At the same time, U. S. Crude oil exports have gone up from averaging about 3,800,000 barrels per day last year to about 4,800,000 barrels per day now. Speaker 400:14:49In Slide 4, We see the company's fleet growth and capital market access since inception. We raise capital for growth, not at the top of the market, but at times when asset prices are usually low. In the slide In this slide, the numbers in the blue boxes present the company's common share offerings and in red, The series of preferred self offering since the company's New York Stock Exchange listing. The first three preferred series Have totaling $188,000,000 of par value, the Series B, C and D, Plus, a privately placed preferred instrument of $35,000,000 initial par value have been fully redeemed as we speak, saving the company excess of $18,000,000 per year of coupon payments for all these retired preferred series. In the next slide, we see the fleet and its current fleet employment. Speaker 400:15:49We have an operational fleet of 60 vessels. 51 out of the 60 vessels or 52 percent of the fleet in the water has market exposure, a combination of spot and time chartered with profit sharing, 46 out of the 60 vessels or 77% are in secured contracts, fixed time charters and time charters with profit sharing. This means that TEN is well positioned to continue capturing the positive tanker market fundamentals. Any divestment of early generation vessels, as we have done in the Q1 of the year, With the 62,005 Build Emars and the 2006 Build Hardysize product tankers will be replaced and have been replaced with Modern, eco friendly, greener vessel. TEM has currently a new building program of 8 tankers consisting of 2 shuttle tankers for delivery during 2025, 2 remaining dual LNG powered Aframaxes for delivery during the Q1 of 2024, 2 eco friendly scrubber fitted Suezmaxes for delivery also in 2025 and 2 scrubber fitted MR tankers for delivery in early 2026. Speaker 400:17:03Except of the 2 Suezmaxes that will be delivered after 2 years and Slide 6 presents the company's current and long term clients. As you see, we have a blue chip customer base consisting of 4 major global energy companies, Refineries, commodity traders, with Equinor currently topping the list as our largest charter with 11 vessels and and 2 new buildings all on long term time charters. The left side of Slide 7 presents the all in breakeven course for the various vessel types we operate in TEN. Our operating model is simple. We try to have our time charter vessels generate revenue to cover the company's cash expenses, Paying for the vessel operating expenses, finance expenses, overheads, chartering costs and commissions, and we let the revenue from the spot trading vessels contribute to the profitability of the company. Speaker 400:18:10Fleet utilization for the 9 months amounted to 95.6%, which is a very strong number. And thanks to the profit sharing element for every $1,000 per day increase in spot rates, it has a positive $0.18 impact in annual EPS based on the number of 10 vessels that currently have exposure to spot rates. Debt reduction is an integral part of the company's capital allocation strategy. The company debt picked in December of 2016. Since then, we have repaid $355,000,000 of debt and redeemed $211,000,000 in 3 series of preferred shares plus a privately placed preferred instrument. Speaker 400:18:57In Slide number 9, we see the historical performance of the company since 2004. I would like to highlight the revenue growth as the fleet increased during this period, the changes in EBITDA as the company navigated the ups and of the shipping market in this 20 year period, the bottom line profitability and the strong cash reserves that we have maintained. Last year was a record year for the financial performance of TEN. We expect an equally strong performance for 2023. In addition to paying down debt, dividend continuity is important for common shareholders and management. Speaker 400:19:39TEN has always paid and dividend irrespective of the market cycle. Our dividend policy is semi annual. Following the June 2023 October 2023 payments, the latter being a special dividend. As we previously announced, we will pay a dividend of $0.30 per common share on December 20 to holders of record as of December 14, 2023. This distribution reflects The 2nd regular semiannual payment in 2023, in line with 10 semiannual dividend policy. Speaker 400:20:14Overall, for 2023, the total dividend distribution of $1 per common share is 4 times the $0.25 per common share distributed to the company's shareholder in 2022. Following this year's Last dividend payment in December, the company would have distributed in excess of $528,000,000 to its common shareholder since the New York Stock Exchange listing in 2002. And if we add the dividends paid to the holders of the company's preferred shares since 2013, The year the 1st Series B was issued, then 10 has returned in excess of $800,000,000 to both common and preferred shareholders of the company. Global oil demand continues to grow. Despite financial and geopolitical headwinds, The International Energy Agency expects global oil demand to grow by approximately 2,400,000 barrels per day, reaching 102,000,000 barrels per day, a record number in 2023. Speaker 400:21:20Most of the growth is coming from the Asia Pacific region, mainly China. On the supply side, most of the growth this year is coming from non OPEC plus countries, Brazil, the United States of America, Guyana, Canada, Mexico, Norway. As global oil demand continues to grow, let's look at the forecast for the supply of tankers. The order book as of October 23 stands Our 856 tankers over the next 3 years or 6.7%, which is one of the lowest numbers in the last 20 years. At the same time, a big part of the fleet, almost 40%, is over 15 years And 661 tankers or 12.4 percent is currently over 20 years. Speaker 400:22:12The next slide shows the scrapping activity since 2018. For this year, scrapping is low, but with upcoming regulations An industry in the first phases of decarbonization and more than 12.4% of the fleet over 20 years, We believe that scrapping is going to pick up. Overall, all these factors point to a very balanced tanker supply market for the next few years. And with that, I will ask Paul to walk you through the financial highlights of the 9 months of the year. Speaker 500:22:46Paul? Thank you, George. I'll just add a few words relating to the 9 months Ending in September, in a year that has enjoyed considerable success for TEN and which continues to enjoy strong rates as the new year approaches. Net income for the 9 month period amounted to $272,000,000 While operating income for the 9 years increased by 160%, EBITDA amounted to approximately $370,000,000 adjusted, a significant increase by 90 percent. The average daily TCE for the 9 months was over $37,000 up from $27,000 in the prior 9 month period, a substantial increase Compared to the prior year period, helped by profit share arrangements, providing nearly $60,000,000 in the 9 months and with almost every vessel fully employed apart from 7 in drydock. Speaker 500:24:15Voyage revenues amounted to nearly $700,000,000 a 13% increase over the prior year. Our overhead expenses per day per vessel continue to remain stable at only $1,600,000 Total finance costs in the 9 month period amounted to $73,000,000 an aberration due to interest rate hikes and to inflationary causes. Finally, our debt to capital was about 49%, a comfortable ratio partially helped by scheduled loan repayments of $140,000,000 and redeemed preferred shares totaling over $100,000,000 Our new buildings are on target to meet delivery and related financing has now been covered. Our current optimism relates partly to the forthcoming months and is supported by our significant cash reserves and a promising global decline in inflation. And now I'll give the phone back to Nikolas. Speaker 300:25:38Paul, thank you for your good news, and it's good that everything is adding up in a positive way. I think as it was mentioned from our President and our CFO, The current market, the spot market is, I would say, at all time Strong high in all segments. It's a surprising situation where both the smaller clean trade The investments together with anything between SureSmax, Vertices and Aframax are lower earning between $60,000 to $80,000 a day On the spot, and of course, this gives us a lot of comfort with our profit arrangements and our 50% Spot exposure. So having right now 35 vessels in spot related markets, As George said, it's almost $0.20 per every $1,000 it's $0.20 to our bottom line. The result up to now of $8.18 I think it's very, very positive and very soon this will be reflecting to our share price and of course it will give us More confidence to continue our dividend distributions. Speaker 300:27:01Looking back this year, we have already, other than the $30,000,000 of dividend that will be paid in excess of $100,000,000 $108,000,000 has been paid back to our preferred buying back our preferred shares and that Immediately brings to a bottom line a saving of $9,000,000 for next year. So overall, we have returned more than In this period of time, more than $140,000,000 back to our for our preferred and common shareholders. And of course, we maintain a very strong balance sheet that allows us to look at Possibilities of expanding our fleet with modern tonnage. We showed 8 vessels. We have 8 vessels coming already to delivery of 2. Speaker 300:27:59Show out of our 10 environmental friendly new building. The prospects going forward, as our President said, we have A very low order book, increasing demand, a growing gray fleet that goes Anywhere between 250 to 300 vessels that are not participating in the day to day market with the major oil companies, new legislation that is coming up that is making slow steaming and restrict Traveling on navigation, positive in increasing ton miles and of course natural Limitations like Panama Canal restrictions that are making many owners taking more ton miles and trading around the gate. So in view for sure, I think the Q4 this year is going to be our 30th year is going to be another record year like last year was. And the prospects, at least for the next couple of years, considering the limited new building supply, are positive. And with that, I would like to open the floor in case anybody would like to ask some specific questions. Speaker 200:29:20Thank you. Operator00:29:21We will now be conducting a question and answer session. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question It may be necessary to pick up your hands up before questions at the Thank you. Our first question is from Shareef Almagrobi with BTIG, please proceed with your question. Speaker 600:29:59The first question, earlier this week, we saw some VLCCs go on multiyear time charters at above the historical average rates. And obviously, you've been active in the charter market. So I'm wondering if you're seeing much interest from charterers for 3 year plus contracts? Or is the opportunity there pretty thin? Speaker 300:30:21I would say, as we are speaking, my phone actually is ringing with charterers. We're Getting messages from our charter lease department from our London office in Singapore getting offers of this short. There is a lot of appetite right now for 3 to 5 years on modern tonnage As we have our 2 Suezmaxes that are being built there for next year, they're big contenders of very strong interest for those ships. So yes, you are right. There is an appetite. Speaker 300:30:52There is an expectation for major oil companies that we are going to be seeing Stronger rates and I think what happened as the seasonal third quarter, which is the weakest quarter came to an end, As George said, we have seen a very strong market demand in all categories of ships. Usually, I mean, the clean started going about a month ago. The clean market started getting strong. And I think now the dirty market, when I say the larger ships, are following up in a big way. So yes, you are right, there is a lot of demand for 3 to 5 year employment for good quality operators and Relatively more than tonnage. Speaker 600:31:35And then on the clean side, a few Middle Eastern refineries They have been ramping capacity or are going to start ramping capacity this year and next. Has that started to shift trade flows for product tankers? Or Are you not seeing a shift in volumes there yet? Speaker 300:31:52Yes. I mean, we are seeing the larger capacity Middle East sorry, Far Eastern Refineries filling those gaps and that's why perhaps you have seen the LR2s which are not usually Far Eastern traders earning very hefty rates bringing refiners to either to Europe or even to refiners in the Middle East. Speaker 600:32:20That's helpful. Thanks for taking my questions. Speaker 300:32:23Thank you. Operator00:32:25Thank you. Our next question is from Omar Khotsa with Jefferies. Please proceed with your question. Speaker 100:32:32Thank you. Hi, guys. Just a couple Speaker 700:32:33for me. Perhaps just as a follow-up to the initial discussion on the time charters, I wanted to just sort of ask about fleet deployment from here. I know in the release you mentioned charters being more active, looking for long term charters, which, Nick, you just highlighted again. But clearly, there's a with long term contracts, there's a sign of conviction that this market is going to be elevated for some time. So in terms of how you deploy your fleet from here, you mentioned having the 35 ships on the spot market. Speaker 700:33:03But I guess as you think about this as we move into 'twenty four and onwards. How do you want to deploy the fleet? Do you want to stay as spot exposed as you are currently? Do you want to shift more towards index linked? Or do you prefer perhaps to secure long term charters at fixed rates at elevated fixed rates? Speaker 300:33:22Well, it has to do with case by case, by the quality. If we have a new charter or very quality with whom we do not have A very long relationship, we might consider doing longer employment, but currently we are existing Long term business on our existing fleet, because as you said, the market is quite good. And I think we have a very good buffer On the ships that we have right now, the 33 ships that are on time charter. And I mean, we're always looking at pulling and profit sharing arrangements, which we encourage. Speaker 700:34:04Okay. Thank you. And Just perhaps maybe a little bit more random, but just looking at your fleet list, there's the Lisboa Suezmax. And if I recall, that's a shuttle tanker. It rolls off charter in the first half of twenty twenty five, so it's still a bit away, call it, say, a year or year plus. Speaker 700:34:21But we just want to know in terms of how you think about that vessel in particular duties. Do you think that that ship will continue operating on the shuttle tanker? Or do you see it penetrating as a conventional once that contract is over. Speaker 300:34:37Well, as we speak today, and we have a big team of our a big Part of our team looking at the markets, the South American markets are not only I think there's a big appetite For shuttle tankers to continue their business as shuttle tankers. However, the ships we have built and operate perhaps to us as efficiently and as profitably as Suezmaxes. But I believe that the ship will continue Trading at this very demanding shuttle market that are growing right now. Speaker 700:35:20Okay, good. And then just final one for me is that on the 2 MRs that you ordered recently, Those deliver in 2026, but they're scheduled to. Just wanted to ask, do you have options that came with those orders? And then is there any detail you can give in terms of when you need to exercise those or what delivery time frames we would be looking at if you did exercise them? Speaker 300:35:45Yes. I mean, we have options for those ships and we have options for in the first half of next year of dual fuel versions of those ships also. So this is what we're our technical department Is analyzing together with our clients. Speaker 700:36:05Okay. And delivery time frame, because if I recall, when you Placed those orders. It was a pretty attractive delivery slot in the early part of 'twenty six. Do you still get deliveries in 'twenty six, If you were to Speaker 300:36:18ask further along. Later part of 'twenty six, if someone is interested for a later part of 'twenty six. Operator00:36:33Thank you. Our next question is from Clement Mullen with Value Investors Edge. Please proceed with your question. Speaker 800:36:41Good morning or afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. I wanted to start by asking about your FEED Renewal efforts. You've been clear on your intention to continue to sell older vessels and reinvest proceeds on modern tonnage. However, There haven't been that many transactions on the Echo side of the fleet. Speaker 800:36:59Do you expect liquidity to increase going forward? And secondly, How do you think about the trade off between high asset pricing and the need to renew the fleet? Speaker 300:37:13That's a very, very good question because what you usually say in shipping is that you should not be selling at the same time that You're buying. And so I think your point is very Speaker 400:37:26well timed. However, Speaker 300:37:29we are A client driven organization, we are a continue we're more of an industrial play owner. We have sold at least 8 vessels since the beginning of the year at very hefty prices. And then we decided instead of buying vessels in the spot market to Order our future with a very modern ship. So I mean, as long as we are able to have good employment cover For the vessels that we will be buying that will have very good returns going forward and amortize those ships. We will still continue with this model, selling older vessels at this market And looking at good quality, perhaps dual fuel or other vessels with short employment that will, first of all, reduce Significantly, our age profile, which is already young and reduce our footprint. Speaker 800:38:40That's helpful. Thank you. I also wanted to ask about operating expenses on a per day basis, which increased quite a bit quarter over quarter. As we think about the run rate going forward, should we expect them to trend Closer to $9,000 or $9,500 per day. And secondly, could you give us some commentary on what were the biggest drivers behind the increase? Speaker 300:39:04Yes. And Paul can take you more into details, but I will give you the basic ideas. First of all is that We are right now running a fleet of much larger vessels. So I mean that has Last year's fleet, we had our vessels were 8 vessels of the handysize that brought our daily operating expenses lower. This year, we had the drydockings of our larger ships in Portugal. Speaker 300:39:46And of course, we are running a fleet of much larger vessels. So the average naturally will go higher, but it will normalize, I think, within the year. Speaker 800:40:11Thank you. Operator00:40:12There are no further questions at this time. I will hand the floor back over to Doctor. Nicholas Tsakos for any closing comments. Speaker 300:40:22First of all, thank you. Thank you very much for asking. I know you're all Very, very busy wrapping up for a very exciting and hopefully peaceful family Thanksgiving. And thank you for taking the time to be with us Today, we're looking forward to report even better results and a very exciting full year in sometime early in the Q1. We will be we are happy to have A Christmas holiday dividend for everybody in December that our President has said on the 20th of December. Speaker 300:41:05And with that, I will ask also our Chairman, Tyche, Thank you for your closing remarks and I wish everybody a very happy Thanksgiving. Speaker 200:41:16Thank you. Thank you, Nico. As you said, in view of the continued buoyant market, we expect to have very strong results for the year and equally strong results going forward. I hope that all these good prospects described today will soon be reflected in our stock price. And best wishes for a happy Thanksgiving to all. Speaker 200:41:44Thank you.Read morePowered by