NYSE:ECO Okeanis Eco Tankers Q1 2024 Earnings Report $23.11 +0.35 (+1.54%) Closing price 04/25/2025 03:59 PM EasternExtended Trading$23.06 -0.04 (-0.19%) As of 04/25/2025 05:58 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 Okeanis Eco Tankers EPS ResultsActual EPS$1.23Consensus EPS $1.10Beat/MissBeat by +$0.13One Year Ago EPSN/AOkeanis Eco Tankers Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$111.12 millionExpected Revenue$109.19 millionBeat/MissBeat by +$1.93 millionYoY Revenue GrowthN/AOkeanis Eco Tankers Announcement DetailsQuarterQ1 2024Date5/16/2024TimeN/AConference Call DateThursday, May 16, 2024Conference Call Time7:30AM ETUpcoming EarningsOkeanis Eco Tankers' Q1 2025 earnings is scheduled for Thursday, May 15, 2025, with a conference call scheduled on Wednesday, May 14, 2025 at 8:30 AM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckInterim ReportEarnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by Okeanis Eco Tankers Q1 2024 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrMay 16, 2024 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 8 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Welcome to the OET's First Quarter 20 24 Results Financial Results Presentation. We will begin shortly. Aristides Alafousos, CEO and Iraklis Varunas, CFO of Okeanos Eco Tankers, will take you through the presentation. We will be pleased to address any questions I would like to advise you that this session is being recorded. Ira Cliff, please begin the presentation now. Speaker 100:00:33Welcome to the presentation of Okeani's EcoTankter's results for the Q1 of 2024. We will discuss matters of the forward looking nature and actual results may differ from the expectations reflected in such forward looking statements. Please read through the relevant disclaimer on Slide 2. So starting the presentation on Slide 4 and the executive summary. I'm pleased to present the highlights of the Q1 of 2024. Speaker 100:01:00It has been a very positive one. This marks the Q1 that we have been fully spot exposed across both our VLCC and Suezmax fleets. We achieved fleet wide time charter equivalent of over $63,000 per vessel per day, spot rates for VFCCs of $69,000 and spot sues maxes of $57,000 We report adjusted EBITDA of $65,200,000 adjusted net profit of $39,600,000 and adjusted EPS of $1.23 Our Board declared an 8th consecutive capital distribution of $1.10 per share. That is about 90% of our adjusted EPS as we continue delivering on our promise to distribute value to our shareholders. We remain very positive on the market outlook in parallel to our commitment to distribute as much as possible, always taking into account our capital structure and overall cash position. Speaker 100:01:59On a 4 quarter sterling basis, we have distributed $3.86 per share. That's 92% and 93% respectively of our reported and adjusted EPS over the same period. On a nominal basis, that's approximately 125,000,000 dollars Slide 5, diving a little further into our P and L for the 1st 3 months of the year. TCE revenues stood at 81,000,000 dollars EBITDA at $65,000,000 reported net income of $42,000,000 This quarter, we recognized an extraordinary non cash gain of $2,300,000 related to the amendments to our 2 leases on the VXCCs, Nissos K and Nissos Nikurla, which resulted in the recognition of a modification gain as per IFRS rules. We expect to amortize that gain through the duration of the leases. Speaker 100:02:51Including such gain and other minor cash adjustments, our reported EPS came out at $1.29 Moving on to Slide 6 and our balance sheet. We ended the quarter with $109,000,000 of cash. May remember the year end cash balance was affected by a higher than usual amount of receivables, which were collected at the beginning of the year. Our debt as of March 31 stood at $694,000,000 book leverage of 58%, while market adjusted net LTV based on our most recent broker values has now been reduced to approximately 40%, continuing to stand at more than comfortable levels for us. On Slide 7, we summarize our corporate and capital structure as well as our employment profile. Speaker 100:03:39As we talked about earlier since late December, our entire fleet is trading in the spot market. In the last quarter, we talked about 4 transactions that would materially improve our capital structure, including commencing with Amelos, the execution of the series of refinancings of our legacy expensive leases. We closed all 4 of these transactions within the quarter as expected. Overall, since the summer of 2023, we have improved the cost of debt on 9 out of our 14 vessels by approximately 100 basis points, while in parallel improving on other terms and extending maturities. The company is in a great and opportune position to take advantage of a competitive financing market landscape and the momentum achieved with all our last done transactions as we're negotiating the refinancing of the polyols, a significant milestone in improving our interest cost and capital structure. Speaker 100:04:37And we also continue to be on the lookout for accretive opportunistic deals on other vessels. I'm now passing over the presentation to Aristides for the commercial Speaker 200:04:48update. Thank you, Irakli. Q1 2024 was our Q1 of having a full quarter of 100% spot exposure. This is where we want to be in this point of the cycle and we're very confident here. The market was very well balanced in Q1 and the floor was established with strong resistance levels. Speaker 200:05:09During Q1, there were 3 or 4 tight moments where we saw the market firm and position lists really tighten. And it genuinely felt as if they could really run upwards more, but it stalled out. The major charters, especially loading out of the AG on VLCCs are very concentrated and effective at taking the steam out of the market when things get a bit tighter. Owners will break this control and take over the reins and control the market when we have a bit more power and there's a further driver. The market is currently balanced, as I said earlier. Speaker 200:05:45So we need a small impetus like some additional OpEx supplier seasonality to give us the strength. The effect of the closure of the Red Sea is now fully established in Q1 and it continues into Q2. And we've seen how crude trading patterns have changed on the crude market. Arab AG barrels, especially Iraqi flowing to Europe on Suezmaxes via Suez Canal. They're not either sold east or they're parceled up on VLCCs and sent to Europe via the Cape of Good Hope. Speaker 200:06:20Likewise, again, med Suezmax cargoes either loading in Libya or Algeria or from the Black Sea, which would go east on Suezmaxes are now being parceled up again on VLCCs and getting sent around the Cape also. And we've capitalized on these types of voyages on our VLCCs and they worked out really well for us because we've been able to triangulate and minimize ballast to effectively nothing on some of our ships. Given we have to dry dock our 2019 built VLCCs this year, we took advantage of having our VLCCs in the West to timely fix against these spikes we saw in Q1, our vessels to the East to position for the dry dock. These were highly profitable runs that outperformed the round voyage alternative of staying in the west. By margin that offsets the value of being in the west. Speaker 200:07:08So we were happy to do these fixtures and I think we would have probably done these fixtures even if we didn't have the dry docks just because of the premium of the front haul versus the round voyage time charter equivalent. We plan the dry docks to occur during Q2 and Q3 in order to have the ships back and ready for a strong Q4. The dry docks are expected to take 15 to 20 days and the vessels won't undergo thorough maintenance as well as sailing out with new high spec painting schemes that will actually make these ships more efficient than when they were delivered to us at new buildings. During the quarter, we have achieved the fleet YTC of $63,600 per operating day. Our VLCCs generated $68,800 per day in the spot market and this is a 47% outperformance relative to all our tanker peers that have reported Q1 earnings. Speaker 200:08:04Our Suezmax has generated $56,700 per spot day and that's a 10% outperformance relative to our tanker peers who have also reported Q1 earnings. These numbers reflect our actual book TCEs within the quarter as per our accounting guidance. And we move on to Slide 10 for guidance on Q2. Q2 was another balanced and strong quarter where OET avoided some of the seasonal weakness in rates. For the past 2 weeks, we are experiencing this tightness in the market that I mentioned in the previous slide. Speaker 200:08:42If the owners had slightly more driving confidence, we could really see rates push on. This being said, I would not be surprised if we have a summer surprise and we see a decent spike going into the summer. Overall, in Q2, our trading spend Q1, our trading strategy has changed a bit on the Versus and the Suezmaxes. The Suezmax fleet, since we don't go through the Red Sea, has lost we've lost the natural backhaul from the AG to the Europe. So the front hulls either you have to price them on a round trip voyage or you have or ballast back. Speaker 200:09:19This has made us adjust to trading the vessels more exclusively in the West and avoiding getting stuck out in the East without a backhaul. We always prefer trading in the West on Suezmaxes. And while on the VLCCs, we're positioning, as I mentioned earlier, for the dry dock and we have a strong presence in the East at the moment, which we haven't had since 2022. Once we complete the dry docks though on the VLCCs, we will likely return to a strategy where we minimize ballast and we trade our VLCCs with a focus on getting back to the West using backhauls and then fixing fronthauls east or staying local when we think that the premium is not big enough to take the fronthaul east. So far in Q2, we fixed 71% of our fleet spot days at $70,600 per day. Speaker 200:10:07We've done 82% of our VLCC spot days at $75,900 per day. That's a 50% outperformance relative to our tanker peers who have reported Q2 earnings. And 57% of our Suezmax spot days at $60,800 per day and that's a 48% outperformance relative to our tanker peers that have reported Q2 earnings. On Slide 11, we have reformatted our outperformance slide. I think what we try to show here is that this is a proven and consistent outperformance that grows when the market is strong and those extra materials in the firm those extra earnings in the firm market are very material. Speaker 200:10:51So at OAT, we're really focused on maintaining this consistency going forward and keeping the outperformance strong in the following quarters. On Slide 12, We think that OPEC plus has given stability to market prices and kept inventory levels in a steadily decreasing trajectory overall. We had expected OPEC plus to return some barrels in June or July, but this potentially made delay until later in the year due to the relative softening of oil prices. The side effect of OPEC plus stabilizing the market are the abnormalities that occur when you effectively regulate a market. The floor and pricing has encouraged non OPEC supply growth to effectively match global oil demand growth. Speaker 200:11:44This is occurring when OPEC spare capacity has been slowly growing due to the cuts in new production coming online. One question we have is how long will OPEC be able to manage their partners? With oil prices this high and an energy transition in progress, we expect a weakening control of OPEC over its members and we expect more cheating and even a decent chance of countries breaking out and producing outside of their quotas. This is obviously very bullish for the market. On Slide 13, we look at the supply setup that seems too good to be true. Speaker 200:12:17A staggering amount of tonnage reaches the commercially restrictive age of 15 20 years over the next 6 years. While shipyard capacity is steadily reduced and the quality yards that build tankers are focused on higher profit margin assets like containers, LNGCs, VLGCs, car carriers, etcetera. The Red Sea situation has also caused a large tailwind to the container sector freight, which without would have had serious headwinds due to the delivery motor book. This will bring a further new build contracting wave on containers, which we will see materialize over the coming months. This further restricts the future container orders will further restrict berth availability for tankers and will reduce the potential supply for 2027, 2028 and onwards. Speaker 200:13:04Finally, although asset prices are high due to the strength in freight currently, the expected strength in future freight and the high newbuilding cost. We still believe there's material upside to values when we enter the phase where we see very strong freight strength in 2025 and 2026. So it's a unique and exciting time to be in tankers and I'm handing it back to the operator. Thank you. Operator00:13:30We will now open the lines for questions. So the first question comes from the line of Liam Burke of B. Riley. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Speaker 300:14:02Yes. Thank you. Good morning or good afternoon. Your VLCCs are due to the rerouting of traffic. Normalized basis. Speaker 300:14:20Is there any offset on the Suezmax possibly not increase in non OPEC plus production? Speaker 200:14:31Yes, for sure, because I also think that the amount of oil that Suezmaxes were delivering from the Arabian Gulf to Europe prior to the Red Sea situation on Suezmax predominantly is a lot more today than what it is being delivered today on VLCC. So this gap in oil is transported from some other origin, whether it's West Africa or the U. S. Gulf or Brazil. And these are decent length voyages and predominantly they will use Suezmaxes because we have to remember that the Mediterranean especially is not a basin that's designed to discharge VLCCs. Speaker 200:15:20We have discharged 2, 3, maybe on the way to do 4 VLCCs in Europe and everything has been via STS onto Suezmaxes. So it also like these VLCC voyages also create additional Suezmax voyages. And whenever you have an SPS, you never know when the ship will arrive, either our ship or the ship that's coming, the weather delays. So you create additional Suezmax voyage from the VLCC rerouting as well. So I think it's both a combination of non OPEC Suezmax cargoes from the Atlantic basin bringing on Suezmax plus the inefficiency of VLCCs and the requirement to lighter on to Suez. Speaker 300:16:11Thank you. And you mentioned it's obvious asset valuations are pretty elevated. Even in this environment, is there any interest or any possibility of adding assets? Speaker 200:16:28Look, I mean, we've been fairly prudent. I mean, we've been very prudent since 20 21 when we bought the last VLCC delivering in 2022. We're very happy with the fleet. We don't necessarily need to add assets at the moment. We definitely don't want to add any assets that disrupt potential dividend payments. Speaker 200:16:55So that's the number one concern of making sure we can keep returning our profits to shareholders. So I wouldn't say that it's very likely that we will be purchasing assets. Although we do see material upside to the values of assets and there are some ships being sold right now that are sister ships to ours. Last done last year was around 113 that Bari bought 2019 build VLCCs. This year the ship is 6 years old. Speaker 200:17:24So it's depreciated by whatever 5%, 6% or but I actually think that this price that these ships will be sold out, which are also 2019 will be higher than 113. So I think we're there to see another small step up in valuation again. Speaker 300:17:40Okay, great. And I apologize for this last question, but I didn't get it. In the prepared statements, you talked about outdistancing the benchmarks. I believe the Suezmax's rates outdistanced the comps by 10%. I didn't get the VLCCs. Speaker 300:17:56And again, I apologize for that. Speaker 200:17:59No problem. So the Suez in Q1, the Suezmax has outperformed all our comps by 10%. The VLCCs in Q1 outperformed all our comps by 47%. And in Q2, like given the percentage of days we fixed, we outperformed by 50% all our comps who reported by 50% on VLCCs and 48% on Suezmaxes. Speaker 300:18:33Great. Thank you very much. Speaker 200:18:36Thanks, Sam. Operator00:18:40The next question comes from the line of Peter Halken of ABG. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Speaker 400:18:48Thank you, and good morning and good afternoon, guys. Start out where the earlier question and on the outperformance. Could you elaborate in a little bit more detail because, well, as you say, you yesterday or the day before, DHT is guiding for 51,000 for Q2 on their pretty sort of modern fleet of VLCCs, while you today come to the market with close to $76,000 per day. So it almost sounds too good to be true. And please explain to me why it's not. Speaker 200:19:30Yes. I mean I can't really explain why others are higher or lower. But I mean I can explain we've really managed to be able to fix first of all, we had a lot of ships in the West. So these were doing round voyages, which historically have outperformed the TD3 market. And because of the dry docks and because we felt that the West was slowly becoming oversaturated and this premium to the East was eroding. Speaker 200:20:01We thought it was time to go east. So we had ships that were opening in the North Sea. We had ships that were opening in the Med. We fixed the ship opening North Sea to load in the North Sea to go to China. So if our competitor has the same distance ballast and laden and where we have 500 miles, one day ballast or 2 days ballast and then 60 late. Speaker 200:20:28And you can see how the TCE is going to be excellent for us because we have no ballast days. And the same goes for 2 or 3 ships in the Med. Again, we were discharging in the Med on these cargoes coming from the AG or from the U. S. Gulf. Speaker 200:20:45And then we found opportunity to load in the Med again, so minimal ballast 1, 2, 3 days and sail all the way down around Africa to China or to Korea. So the effect of triangulation that we've been able to achieve is really, really advantageous for us. It's also a benefit that we have a relatively small fleet. So we're very flexible in being able to choose the exact cargo that we want. And having very good relationships that the company and the family have had for the past 40 years now in tankers that they've been maintained over that period as well. Speaker 400:21:25Thank you. That's so but then again, you're now positioning ships to the east. And it sounded as if it's perhaps a little bit more sort of frontal weighted in the Q2 guiding then. So well, first question, should we expect more ballast and less of an outperformance in Q3 and possibly Q4 when the dry docks are done? Speaker 200:21:53I like how you said less of an outperformance. Yes, potentially. Look, I think once the drydocks are done, the first voyage post drydock will it's always a bit of a challenge because you lose your approvals and the charters are a bit concerned about some outdated issues that ships had 30 years ago, but because shipping is a slow changing industry, they've kept on. So the first voyage might it's not going to be the ideal voyage at Roubaix, but we're going to find something short and quick to get it over with. And then we're going to get back to the way we usually trade ships. Speaker 200:22:26So repositioning to the west on these nice backhauls and then fixing fronthauls east again. Speaker 400:22:33Okay. And in terms of dry docks, can I ask how many days do you plan now to spend for each of them? And what would you then in terms of the number of days again characterize as standard sort of work to be done? What is additional? I guess, the painting jobs is needed to be done either way. Speaker 400:22:56But if you have any additional days or OpEx in terms I'm sorry, CapEx in terms of upgrades, it's better than what it was. Speaker 200:23:13So the expected duration in the dry dock is 16 days at the moment. It could go a day quicker. Usually things take delay a bit longer, but we've guided 15 to 20 days. I think you mentioned something about maintenance. Yes, I mean we're going to do everything that's required for our ships to perform without issues as they have been performing for the next 5 years. Speaker 200:23:39So we want to overhaul major equipment that we don't want to have issues with and have off hire commercial off hire time going forward. And the ships have been running very hard. I mean since 2022, our fleet has been basically sailing at full speed the whole time and we've left very little time for the manager to do any kind of extra maintenance. So the dry dock, we need to do a good job here. The painting the paint scheme that we're using, we're using 2 types of paint. Speaker 200:24:101 is pure silicone by Hempel and another is a slightly more conventional by Jotun. We're really positive about the effects of these paints. We've used the Hempel on one of our Suezmaxes and we saw there that her performance was better than when she was delivered. So we're quite excited about the effects of those paints. And I think we expect the whole cost including all expenses including port costs and everything like that to come in slightly above $2,000,000 Speaker 100:24:46Peter, keep in mind, we are just a reminder, we are capitalizing both dry dock expenses as well as Speaker 200:24:55the paint costs. Speaker 400:24:59Yes. Okay. Yes. Speaker 200:25:01We are aware of Speaker 400:25:05that. A quick sort of related question. Now we will come into sort of what your ships are 2019 doing the first write off, but there is also quite a few 2,009 build ships, which will do their 3rd drydock. Should we expect an abnormal amounts of drydock days in the fleet this year? And yes, what is then well, is there sufficient dry dock capacity in the East for all the dry docks that will be done now with the sort of delivery boom we saw back in 2,009, 2010? Speaker 200:25:50I think in the next years when we see the wave of deliveries of 9, 10, 11, 12, which were very heavy delivery years. Obviously, we will see a higher number of ships being dried up and a decrease in the available VLCC fleet, which is positive for the market. I think though that the market does have capacity to dry dock the ships. I haven't heard that as a concern. It's just that perhaps some people might not find optimum yard quality that they'd like or optimum slot timing. Speaker 200:26:30So we were very concerned about the quality of the yard, both for being able to overhaul the machinery that we want and to do the work we want and to apply the painting correctly, but also to have the slots that we want. So for us, it was very key that we can get the ships in at some point in the summer. They can do that first voyage and be all ready for a Q4 spike. So that's been the strategy for us all along. And that's also why Nisos Anafi, she's a 2020 built VLCC. Speaker 200:27:03She doesn't technically need to do her dry dock until next year, but we're going to bring it forward. So we don't have to be dry docking a ship in January, February of Q1 and missing out that strong market, which theoretically should be a lot firmer than what June or July maybe. Speaker 400:27:24Sounds wise. Just the final question for me on the market side of things. GST or the U. S. Gulf is perhaps, at least from the screen I'm looking, not seemingly booming these days. Speaker 400:27:39It's to be a bit slow. Well, the first part is, is that correct? Is the U. S. Gulf slower than it's been sort of through the winter? Speaker 400:27:54And what is your expectation sort of on the other side of the summer in terms of activity out to the U. S. Gulf? Speaker 100:28:08No, I think Speaker 200:28:10the activity within the U. S. Gulf often depends a lot about the ARB opportunities and sometimes they're more open and sometimes they're more closed and it may affect the listings within that month. But what's for sure is that the west is tight and the West has been attracting ships from the East and that's what's been ballasting the East as well. So there is activity from the West and it has helped bring up the East rates and keep them out with the market balance. Speaker 200:28:42So if we see if your data shows that perhaps there's been a bit of a drop off in liftings out of the U. S. Gulf and we see that revert to, let's say, last year's average. It should be really bullish it should be relatively bullish on the market because there'll be these cargoes and the West is already tight and it will force more people to balance. And yes, so overall we're positive. Speaker 200:29:07I think it's just a matter of time until we have one of those drivers that I mentioned. It's either more supply from OPEC or seasonality coming into play or some other geopolitical issue that really puts this market on the next level up. Speaker 400:29:24Okay. Thank you. That was all for me. Speaker 100:29:26Thanks, Shlter. Hi, Peter. Operator00:29:29The next question comes from the line of Benedict Mittington of Clarksons Securities. Your line is open. Please go ahead. Speaker 500:29:41Thank you. Good afternoon, guys. Speaker 300:29:44Good afternoon. Speaker 500:29:48Hi. You're now 100% spot, which is where you want to be at this point in the cycle. But is there any level or rate range where you'll start to lock in earnings? Or any sort of dynamic that would have to change before you change your strategy? Speaker 200:30:06Yes. Well, I mean, like most Greeks, our rate ideas are always 5000 or 10000 above the market. So whether they go up tomorrow, they'll probably readjust upwards. But we have some numbers that we think are attractive for 5 year deals. I think as the market strengthens, the 3 year deal owners will start commanding longer term period deals in order to give their ships away and we'll move into a potential deal that can more commonly for 5 years. Speaker 200:30:40And if we get to the levels that we consider attractive, we definitely would fix out the ships. I don't think that potential will come this year. But going forward into 2025 when we really see the tightness of the lack of supply and sort of more oil on the water, it's a potential. It's definitely one of the things we're considering about at the time of the cycle where we need to capitalize this investment. But we really don't feel like we're that close to that point yet. Speaker 200:31:15There's still more upwards to go. Speaker 500:31:20Makes sense. And if I can just have one more question. You mentioned that the appetite for adding assets isn't very high now. But if you were to grow, would you prefer VLs or the Swiss Max segment and why? Speaker 200:31:49It depends. Overall, I think the I mean the VLCC market is less ordered at the moment. So we probably lean on the VLCC market. The VLCC market also has become a lot more flexible and you're able to triangulate the ships a lot more than what you were 5 years ago. So having as I mentioned earlier to B. Speaker 200:32:14Riley that the size of our fleet being relatively nimble and having good relationships, Having more VLCCs and having these niche backhaul opportunities or front haul cargoes, I would today, I would say that we'd prefer to expand into the VLCC market if you force us to. Speaker 100:32:33Or if you got us a good deal. Speaker 500:32:37Okay. Thank you, guys. Speaker 200:32:41Thank you. Operator00:32:45The next question comes from Erika Habe Wilson of Pareto Securities. Your line is open. Please go ahead. Speaker 600:32:55Hi, Erik. Yes. Hi, guys. Just I mean, I'm getting a lot of questions, of course. We've touched upon it already on the outperformance, but because I mean it is, as Petri said, a little bit hard to comprehend. Speaker 600:33:11I just see that you've done a few cargoes out of the Black Sea, it seems like, at least in Q2 so far on Suezmaxes. So just wanted to I mean, I realized CPC, there's no obviously no sanctions. There's no issues related to it. But I mean, it's slightly higher risk, I would say, than kind of mainstream Atlantic Suezmax cargo. So just wanted to hear your thinking around and what makes you how you're comfortable doing that? Speaker 600:33:42And then secondly, also on the VLCCs, it looks also like you've done some cargoes, at least 2 out of Venezuela. Again, no issues, no sanction, nothing at all, but just one thing to understand the premiums you're able to get there and your thinking around that because obviously, a few of the other listed companies are doing it now for whatever reason that might be. So just wanted to hear your thinking around that. Speaker 200:34:14Yes. I mean that sounds like sour grapes, but sure we can answer that. Look, I think if you look at where ships load crude oil, other than Norway and the U. S. Gulf, Almost every other place is a place that has an additional worst premium that you need insurance for, whether it's West Africa, whether it's the AG, whether it's Libya, whether it's the Black Sea. Speaker 200:34:40If you look at like, let's say, if we do some statistics and see where have there been more incidents on VLCCs or Suezmaxes. I think the most dangerous place you could go is probably the AG. I wouldn't say it's the Black Sea. I don't know, it's definitely not Libya or West Africa. And the AG is somewhere that everyone goes. Speaker 200:35:06The Suezmax cargo that we lifted from the Black Sea in 2024, they were all from CPC and I think most of them were fixtures to a U. S. Oil major. We don't we haven't carried any Russian oil under the price cap in 2024 or in most of 2023, since the beginning of 2023. So the outperformance is cargoes that are available and safe. Speaker 200:35:36I don't think that there's any higher risk of loading in Libya, West Africa, Venezuela, Black Sea than there is in the AG. And the AG is somewhere where everyone goes, as I said. And our job, of course, safety is a concern and the crews, they've been with my family for some of them for 25 years. So there's a very close relationship with these people. And but once we get passed and we feel comfortable with the safety, our job is to make as much money for the shareholders as we can. Speaker 200:36:09And some of these cargoes that we can find are also because of the relationships we have, which we mentioned earlier. And perhaps some of the companies that use like pools or especially the pools which don't have the relationships we have, they won't get access to these cargos. So I think it's more acumen rather than risk. Speaker 600:36:33Very good. Thank you. No sour grapes, just genuine questions being asked because I get them. So I have to ask you. Speaker 200:36:40Not by you, by the person asking. Speaker 600:36:43Okay. All right. Thank you, guys. Speaker 200:36:45Thank you. Thanks, Erik. Operator00:36:49The next question comes from Kaiment Molen of Value Investors Edge. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Speaker 700:36:58Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Most has already been covered, but I have a couple of modeling questions. First, it still may be a bit early to tell, but should we expect a negative effect from load to discharge accounting on the back end of the quarter? And secondly, general administrative expenses increased noticeably quarter over quarter. Speaker 700:37:20Is this attributable to the U. S. Listing? And should we expect this to be a one off? Speaker 100:37:26Yes. Eman, I'll answer both. On the ballast days and the loaded Speaker 200:37:32discharge, it's still a bit early to have a Speaker 100:37:36clear picture for what's going to happen at the end of the quarter. So, I would expect a slight effect like we see quarter on quarter. Obviously, one thing to keep in mind, and I think it's quite evident by the results that we report every 2 months, that it's beneficial to look at both the actual results of the reported quarter as well as the guidance figures for the next one together because there's obviously a relationship. And when we do see an impact towards the end of the quarter, obviously, this is always captured in the following one. On G and A, you rightly point out there's I mean, since last year, there's been an increase in our G and A expenses. Speaker 100:38:38The U. S. Listing element has 2 sides. 1 was which has been we've been hit by that mostly in 2023. It's what I would call as one off expenses. Speaker 100:38:52And some of that has actually been incurred this side of the year as well as some of the expenses we received towards the end of the year. But there's also an element of the ongoing expenses that we will incur due to our listing in the U. S. And in fact due to our dual listing. So some of the increased administrative expenses unfortunately is here to stay. Speaker 100:39:25I think our target and looking at the budgets and how it looked like last year, our target is to do better through the rest of the year compared to last year. But I wouldn't expect it to be anywhere close to 2022. So I kind of think that's the range with something closer to 2023. Now having said all that, it's a bit hard to extrapolate the total expense for the entire year if you look at individual quarters because there is quite a significant variation between quarters. And I do expect that both Q1 and Q2 will be higher than what we see towards the rest of the year. Speaker 100:40:17So keep that in mind. Speaker 700:40:20That's very helpful. Thank you. That's all for me. Operator00:40:29Waiting at this time, I'd like to hand the conference back over to Iraklis for closing remarks. Speaker 100:40:35Perfect. Thanks everyone for listening in. I think it was a quite productive call. We look forward to speaking again in August. Thank you. Speaker 100:40:43Thank you very much. Have a nice afternoon. Operator00:40:48Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining today's call. Have a great rest of your day. You may now disconnect your line.Read morePowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallOkeanis Eco Tankers Q1 202400:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2x Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckInterim report Okeanis Eco Tankers Earnings HeadlinesOkeanis Eco Tankers Corp. – Announcement of 2025 Annual Meeting of ShareholdersApril 26 at 11:04 AM | finance.yahoo.comOkeanis Eco Tankers Corp. -- Announcement of 2025 Annual Meeting of Shareholders | ECO Stock NewsApril 25 at 5:41 PM | gurufocus.comTrump’s Secret Social Security Plan?In less than a decade, Social Security could be out of money. But a surprising plan from Trump’s inner circle may not just save the system — it could unlock a major opportunity for savvy investors. Financial insider Jim Rickards calls it “Social Prosperity,” and says those who act now could see the biggest gains.April 26, 2025 | Paradigm Press (Ad)Okeanis Eco Tankers Corp. -- Announcement of 2025 Annual Meeting of ShareholdersApril 25 at 5:41 PM | gurufocus.comOkeanis Eco Tankers Corp. – Announcement of 2025 Annual Meeting of ShareholdersApril 25 at 4:31 PM | globenewswire.comCould 16%-Yielding Okeanis Eco Tankers Corp Have 114% Upside?April 22, 2025 | incomeinvestors.comSee More Okeanis Eco Tankers Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like Okeanis Eco Tankers? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Okeanis Eco Tankers and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About Okeanis Eco TankersOkeanis Eco Tankers (NYSE:ECO), a shipping company, owns and operates tanker vessels worldwide. 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There are 8 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Welcome to the OET's First Quarter 20 24 Results Financial Results Presentation. We will begin shortly. Aristides Alafousos, CEO and Iraklis Varunas, CFO of Okeanos Eco Tankers, will take you through the presentation. We will be pleased to address any questions I would like to advise you that this session is being recorded. Ira Cliff, please begin the presentation now. Speaker 100:00:33Welcome to the presentation of Okeani's EcoTankter's results for the Q1 of 2024. We will discuss matters of the forward looking nature and actual results may differ from the expectations reflected in such forward looking statements. Please read through the relevant disclaimer on Slide 2. So starting the presentation on Slide 4 and the executive summary. I'm pleased to present the highlights of the Q1 of 2024. Speaker 100:01:00It has been a very positive one. This marks the Q1 that we have been fully spot exposed across both our VLCC and Suezmax fleets. We achieved fleet wide time charter equivalent of over $63,000 per vessel per day, spot rates for VFCCs of $69,000 and spot sues maxes of $57,000 We report adjusted EBITDA of $65,200,000 adjusted net profit of $39,600,000 and adjusted EPS of $1.23 Our Board declared an 8th consecutive capital distribution of $1.10 per share. That is about 90% of our adjusted EPS as we continue delivering on our promise to distribute value to our shareholders. We remain very positive on the market outlook in parallel to our commitment to distribute as much as possible, always taking into account our capital structure and overall cash position. Speaker 100:01:59On a 4 quarter sterling basis, we have distributed $3.86 per share. That's 92% and 93% respectively of our reported and adjusted EPS over the same period. On a nominal basis, that's approximately 125,000,000 dollars Slide 5, diving a little further into our P and L for the 1st 3 months of the year. TCE revenues stood at 81,000,000 dollars EBITDA at $65,000,000 reported net income of $42,000,000 This quarter, we recognized an extraordinary non cash gain of $2,300,000 related to the amendments to our 2 leases on the VXCCs, Nissos K and Nissos Nikurla, which resulted in the recognition of a modification gain as per IFRS rules. We expect to amortize that gain through the duration of the leases. Speaker 100:02:51Including such gain and other minor cash adjustments, our reported EPS came out at $1.29 Moving on to Slide 6 and our balance sheet. We ended the quarter with $109,000,000 of cash. May remember the year end cash balance was affected by a higher than usual amount of receivables, which were collected at the beginning of the year. Our debt as of March 31 stood at $694,000,000 book leverage of 58%, while market adjusted net LTV based on our most recent broker values has now been reduced to approximately 40%, continuing to stand at more than comfortable levels for us. On Slide 7, we summarize our corporate and capital structure as well as our employment profile. Speaker 100:03:39As we talked about earlier since late December, our entire fleet is trading in the spot market. In the last quarter, we talked about 4 transactions that would materially improve our capital structure, including commencing with Amelos, the execution of the series of refinancings of our legacy expensive leases. We closed all 4 of these transactions within the quarter as expected. Overall, since the summer of 2023, we have improved the cost of debt on 9 out of our 14 vessels by approximately 100 basis points, while in parallel improving on other terms and extending maturities. The company is in a great and opportune position to take advantage of a competitive financing market landscape and the momentum achieved with all our last done transactions as we're negotiating the refinancing of the polyols, a significant milestone in improving our interest cost and capital structure. Speaker 100:04:37And we also continue to be on the lookout for accretive opportunistic deals on other vessels. I'm now passing over the presentation to Aristides for the commercial Speaker 200:04:48update. Thank you, Irakli. Q1 2024 was our Q1 of having a full quarter of 100% spot exposure. This is where we want to be in this point of the cycle and we're very confident here. The market was very well balanced in Q1 and the floor was established with strong resistance levels. Speaker 200:05:09During Q1, there were 3 or 4 tight moments where we saw the market firm and position lists really tighten. And it genuinely felt as if they could really run upwards more, but it stalled out. The major charters, especially loading out of the AG on VLCCs are very concentrated and effective at taking the steam out of the market when things get a bit tighter. Owners will break this control and take over the reins and control the market when we have a bit more power and there's a further driver. The market is currently balanced, as I said earlier. Speaker 200:05:45So we need a small impetus like some additional OpEx supplier seasonality to give us the strength. The effect of the closure of the Red Sea is now fully established in Q1 and it continues into Q2. And we've seen how crude trading patterns have changed on the crude market. Arab AG barrels, especially Iraqi flowing to Europe on Suezmaxes via Suez Canal. They're not either sold east or they're parceled up on VLCCs and sent to Europe via the Cape of Good Hope. Speaker 200:06:20Likewise, again, med Suezmax cargoes either loading in Libya or Algeria or from the Black Sea, which would go east on Suezmaxes are now being parceled up again on VLCCs and getting sent around the Cape also. And we've capitalized on these types of voyages on our VLCCs and they worked out really well for us because we've been able to triangulate and minimize ballast to effectively nothing on some of our ships. Given we have to dry dock our 2019 built VLCCs this year, we took advantage of having our VLCCs in the West to timely fix against these spikes we saw in Q1, our vessels to the East to position for the dry dock. These were highly profitable runs that outperformed the round voyage alternative of staying in the west. By margin that offsets the value of being in the west. Speaker 200:07:08So we were happy to do these fixtures and I think we would have probably done these fixtures even if we didn't have the dry docks just because of the premium of the front haul versus the round voyage time charter equivalent. We plan the dry docks to occur during Q2 and Q3 in order to have the ships back and ready for a strong Q4. The dry docks are expected to take 15 to 20 days and the vessels won't undergo thorough maintenance as well as sailing out with new high spec painting schemes that will actually make these ships more efficient than when they were delivered to us at new buildings. During the quarter, we have achieved the fleet YTC of $63,600 per operating day. Our VLCCs generated $68,800 per day in the spot market and this is a 47% outperformance relative to all our tanker peers that have reported Q1 earnings. Speaker 200:08:04Our Suezmax has generated $56,700 per spot day and that's a 10% outperformance relative to our tanker peers who have also reported Q1 earnings. These numbers reflect our actual book TCEs within the quarter as per our accounting guidance. And we move on to Slide 10 for guidance on Q2. Q2 was another balanced and strong quarter where OET avoided some of the seasonal weakness in rates. For the past 2 weeks, we are experiencing this tightness in the market that I mentioned in the previous slide. Speaker 200:08:42If the owners had slightly more driving confidence, we could really see rates push on. This being said, I would not be surprised if we have a summer surprise and we see a decent spike going into the summer. Overall, in Q2, our trading spend Q1, our trading strategy has changed a bit on the Versus and the Suezmaxes. The Suezmax fleet, since we don't go through the Red Sea, has lost we've lost the natural backhaul from the AG to the Europe. So the front hulls either you have to price them on a round trip voyage or you have or ballast back. Speaker 200:09:19This has made us adjust to trading the vessels more exclusively in the West and avoiding getting stuck out in the East without a backhaul. We always prefer trading in the West on Suezmaxes. And while on the VLCCs, we're positioning, as I mentioned earlier, for the dry dock and we have a strong presence in the East at the moment, which we haven't had since 2022. Once we complete the dry docks though on the VLCCs, we will likely return to a strategy where we minimize ballast and we trade our VLCCs with a focus on getting back to the West using backhauls and then fixing fronthauls east or staying local when we think that the premium is not big enough to take the fronthaul east. So far in Q2, we fixed 71% of our fleet spot days at $70,600 per day. Speaker 200:10:07We've done 82% of our VLCC spot days at $75,900 per day. That's a 50% outperformance relative to our tanker peers who have reported Q2 earnings. And 57% of our Suezmax spot days at $60,800 per day and that's a 48% outperformance relative to our tanker peers that have reported Q2 earnings. On Slide 11, we have reformatted our outperformance slide. I think what we try to show here is that this is a proven and consistent outperformance that grows when the market is strong and those extra materials in the firm those extra earnings in the firm market are very material. Speaker 200:10:51So at OAT, we're really focused on maintaining this consistency going forward and keeping the outperformance strong in the following quarters. On Slide 12, We think that OPEC plus has given stability to market prices and kept inventory levels in a steadily decreasing trajectory overall. We had expected OPEC plus to return some barrels in June or July, but this potentially made delay until later in the year due to the relative softening of oil prices. The side effect of OPEC plus stabilizing the market are the abnormalities that occur when you effectively regulate a market. The floor and pricing has encouraged non OPEC supply growth to effectively match global oil demand growth. Speaker 200:11:44This is occurring when OPEC spare capacity has been slowly growing due to the cuts in new production coming online. One question we have is how long will OPEC be able to manage their partners? With oil prices this high and an energy transition in progress, we expect a weakening control of OPEC over its members and we expect more cheating and even a decent chance of countries breaking out and producing outside of their quotas. This is obviously very bullish for the market. On Slide 13, we look at the supply setup that seems too good to be true. Speaker 200:12:17A staggering amount of tonnage reaches the commercially restrictive age of 15 20 years over the next 6 years. While shipyard capacity is steadily reduced and the quality yards that build tankers are focused on higher profit margin assets like containers, LNGCs, VLGCs, car carriers, etcetera. The Red Sea situation has also caused a large tailwind to the container sector freight, which without would have had serious headwinds due to the delivery motor book. This will bring a further new build contracting wave on containers, which we will see materialize over the coming months. This further restricts the future container orders will further restrict berth availability for tankers and will reduce the potential supply for 2027, 2028 and onwards. Speaker 200:13:04Finally, although asset prices are high due to the strength in freight currently, the expected strength in future freight and the high newbuilding cost. We still believe there's material upside to values when we enter the phase where we see very strong freight strength in 2025 and 2026. So it's a unique and exciting time to be in tankers and I'm handing it back to the operator. Thank you. Operator00:13:30We will now open the lines for questions. So the first question comes from the line of Liam Burke of B. Riley. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Speaker 300:14:02Yes. Thank you. Good morning or good afternoon. Your VLCCs are due to the rerouting of traffic. Normalized basis. Speaker 300:14:20Is there any offset on the Suezmax possibly not increase in non OPEC plus production? Speaker 200:14:31Yes, for sure, because I also think that the amount of oil that Suezmaxes were delivering from the Arabian Gulf to Europe prior to the Red Sea situation on Suezmax predominantly is a lot more today than what it is being delivered today on VLCC. So this gap in oil is transported from some other origin, whether it's West Africa or the U. S. Gulf or Brazil. And these are decent length voyages and predominantly they will use Suezmaxes because we have to remember that the Mediterranean especially is not a basin that's designed to discharge VLCCs. Speaker 200:15:20We have discharged 2, 3, maybe on the way to do 4 VLCCs in Europe and everything has been via STS onto Suezmaxes. So it also like these VLCC voyages also create additional Suezmax voyages. And whenever you have an SPS, you never know when the ship will arrive, either our ship or the ship that's coming, the weather delays. So you create additional Suezmax voyage from the VLCC rerouting as well. So I think it's both a combination of non OPEC Suezmax cargoes from the Atlantic basin bringing on Suezmax plus the inefficiency of VLCCs and the requirement to lighter on to Suez. Speaker 300:16:11Thank you. And you mentioned it's obvious asset valuations are pretty elevated. Even in this environment, is there any interest or any possibility of adding assets? Speaker 200:16:28Look, I mean, we've been fairly prudent. I mean, we've been very prudent since 20 21 when we bought the last VLCC delivering in 2022. We're very happy with the fleet. We don't necessarily need to add assets at the moment. We definitely don't want to add any assets that disrupt potential dividend payments. Speaker 200:16:55So that's the number one concern of making sure we can keep returning our profits to shareholders. So I wouldn't say that it's very likely that we will be purchasing assets. Although we do see material upside to the values of assets and there are some ships being sold right now that are sister ships to ours. Last done last year was around 113 that Bari bought 2019 build VLCCs. This year the ship is 6 years old. Speaker 200:17:24So it's depreciated by whatever 5%, 6% or but I actually think that this price that these ships will be sold out, which are also 2019 will be higher than 113. So I think we're there to see another small step up in valuation again. Speaker 300:17:40Okay, great. And I apologize for this last question, but I didn't get it. In the prepared statements, you talked about outdistancing the benchmarks. I believe the Suezmax's rates outdistanced the comps by 10%. I didn't get the VLCCs. Speaker 300:17:56And again, I apologize for that. Speaker 200:17:59No problem. So the Suez in Q1, the Suezmax has outperformed all our comps by 10%. The VLCCs in Q1 outperformed all our comps by 47%. And in Q2, like given the percentage of days we fixed, we outperformed by 50% all our comps who reported by 50% on VLCCs and 48% on Suezmaxes. Speaker 300:18:33Great. Thank you very much. Speaker 200:18:36Thanks, Sam. Operator00:18:40The next question comes from the line of Peter Halken of ABG. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Speaker 400:18:48Thank you, and good morning and good afternoon, guys. Start out where the earlier question and on the outperformance. Could you elaborate in a little bit more detail because, well, as you say, you yesterday or the day before, DHT is guiding for 51,000 for Q2 on their pretty sort of modern fleet of VLCCs, while you today come to the market with close to $76,000 per day. So it almost sounds too good to be true. And please explain to me why it's not. Speaker 200:19:30Yes. I mean I can't really explain why others are higher or lower. But I mean I can explain we've really managed to be able to fix first of all, we had a lot of ships in the West. So these were doing round voyages, which historically have outperformed the TD3 market. And because of the dry docks and because we felt that the West was slowly becoming oversaturated and this premium to the East was eroding. Speaker 200:20:01We thought it was time to go east. So we had ships that were opening in the North Sea. We had ships that were opening in the Med. We fixed the ship opening North Sea to load in the North Sea to go to China. So if our competitor has the same distance ballast and laden and where we have 500 miles, one day ballast or 2 days ballast and then 60 late. Speaker 200:20:28And you can see how the TCE is going to be excellent for us because we have no ballast days. And the same goes for 2 or 3 ships in the Med. Again, we were discharging in the Med on these cargoes coming from the AG or from the U. S. Gulf. Speaker 200:20:45And then we found opportunity to load in the Med again, so minimal ballast 1, 2, 3 days and sail all the way down around Africa to China or to Korea. So the effect of triangulation that we've been able to achieve is really, really advantageous for us. It's also a benefit that we have a relatively small fleet. So we're very flexible in being able to choose the exact cargo that we want. And having very good relationships that the company and the family have had for the past 40 years now in tankers that they've been maintained over that period as well. Speaker 400:21:25Thank you. That's so but then again, you're now positioning ships to the east. And it sounded as if it's perhaps a little bit more sort of frontal weighted in the Q2 guiding then. So well, first question, should we expect more ballast and less of an outperformance in Q3 and possibly Q4 when the dry docks are done? Speaker 200:21:53I like how you said less of an outperformance. Yes, potentially. Look, I think once the drydocks are done, the first voyage post drydock will it's always a bit of a challenge because you lose your approvals and the charters are a bit concerned about some outdated issues that ships had 30 years ago, but because shipping is a slow changing industry, they've kept on. So the first voyage might it's not going to be the ideal voyage at Roubaix, but we're going to find something short and quick to get it over with. And then we're going to get back to the way we usually trade ships. Speaker 200:22:26So repositioning to the west on these nice backhauls and then fixing fronthauls east again. Speaker 400:22:33Okay. And in terms of dry docks, can I ask how many days do you plan now to spend for each of them? And what would you then in terms of the number of days again characterize as standard sort of work to be done? What is additional? I guess, the painting jobs is needed to be done either way. Speaker 400:22:56But if you have any additional days or OpEx in terms I'm sorry, CapEx in terms of upgrades, it's better than what it was. Speaker 200:23:13So the expected duration in the dry dock is 16 days at the moment. It could go a day quicker. Usually things take delay a bit longer, but we've guided 15 to 20 days. I think you mentioned something about maintenance. Yes, I mean we're going to do everything that's required for our ships to perform without issues as they have been performing for the next 5 years. Speaker 200:23:39So we want to overhaul major equipment that we don't want to have issues with and have off hire commercial off hire time going forward. And the ships have been running very hard. I mean since 2022, our fleet has been basically sailing at full speed the whole time and we've left very little time for the manager to do any kind of extra maintenance. So the dry dock, we need to do a good job here. The painting the paint scheme that we're using, we're using 2 types of paint. Speaker 200:24:101 is pure silicone by Hempel and another is a slightly more conventional by Jotun. We're really positive about the effects of these paints. We've used the Hempel on one of our Suezmaxes and we saw there that her performance was better than when she was delivered. So we're quite excited about the effects of those paints. And I think we expect the whole cost including all expenses including port costs and everything like that to come in slightly above $2,000,000 Speaker 100:24:46Peter, keep in mind, we are just a reminder, we are capitalizing both dry dock expenses as well as Speaker 200:24:55the paint costs. Speaker 400:24:59Yes. Okay. Yes. Speaker 200:25:01We are aware of Speaker 400:25:05that. A quick sort of related question. Now we will come into sort of what your ships are 2019 doing the first write off, but there is also quite a few 2,009 build ships, which will do their 3rd drydock. Should we expect an abnormal amounts of drydock days in the fleet this year? And yes, what is then well, is there sufficient dry dock capacity in the East for all the dry docks that will be done now with the sort of delivery boom we saw back in 2,009, 2010? Speaker 200:25:50I think in the next years when we see the wave of deliveries of 9, 10, 11, 12, which were very heavy delivery years. Obviously, we will see a higher number of ships being dried up and a decrease in the available VLCC fleet, which is positive for the market. I think though that the market does have capacity to dry dock the ships. I haven't heard that as a concern. It's just that perhaps some people might not find optimum yard quality that they'd like or optimum slot timing. Speaker 200:26:30So we were very concerned about the quality of the yard, both for being able to overhaul the machinery that we want and to do the work we want and to apply the painting correctly, but also to have the slots that we want. So for us, it was very key that we can get the ships in at some point in the summer. They can do that first voyage and be all ready for a Q4 spike. So that's been the strategy for us all along. And that's also why Nisos Anafi, she's a 2020 built VLCC. Speaker 200:27:03She doesn't technically need to do her dry dock until next year, but we're going to bring it forward. So we don't have to be dry docking a ship in January, February of Q1 and missing out that strong market, which theoretically should be a lot firmer than what June or July maybe. Speaker 400:27:24Sounds wise. Just the final question for me on the market side of things. GST or the U. S. Gulf is perhaps, at least from the screen I'm looking, not seemingly booming these days. Speaker 400:27:39It's to be a bit slow. Well, the first part is, is that correct? Is the U. S. Gulf slower than it's been sort of through the winter? Speaker 400:27:54And what is your expectation sort of on the other side of the summer in terms of activity out to the U. S. Gulf? Speaker 100:28:08No, I think Speaker 200:28:10the activity within the U. S. Gulf often depends a lot about the ARB opportunities and sometimes they're more open and sometimes they're more closed and it may affect the listings within that month. But what's for sure is that the west is tight and the West has been attracting ships from the East and that's what's been ballasting the East as well. So there is activity from the West and it has helped bring up the East rates and keep them out with the market balance. Speaker 200:28:42So if we see if your data shows that perhaps there's been a bit of a drop off in liftings out of the U. S. Gulf and we see that revert to, let's say, last year's average. It should be really bullish it should be relatively bullish on the market because there'll be these cargoes and the West is already tight and it will force more people to balance. And yes, so overall we're positive. Speaker 200:29:07I think it's just a matter of time until we have one of those drivers that I mentioned. It's either more supply from OPEC or seasonality coming into play or some other geopolitical issue that really puts this market on the next level up. Speaker 400:29:24Okay. Thank you. That was all for me. Speaker 100:29:26Thanks, Shlter. Hi, Peter. Operator00:29:29The next question comes from the line of Benedict Mittington of Clarksons Securities. Your line is open. Please go ahead. Speaker 500:29:41Thank you. Good afternoon, guys. Speaker 300:29:44Good afternoon. Speaker 500:29:48Hi. You're now 100% spot, which is where you want to be at this point in the cycle. But is there any level or rate range where you'll start to lock in earnings? Or any sort of dynamic that would have to change before you change your strategy? Speaker 200:30:06Yes. Well, I mean, like most Greeks, our rate ideas are always 5000 or 10000 above the market. So whether they go up tomorrow, they'll probably readjust upwards. But we have some numbers that we think are attractive for 5 year deals. I think as the market strengthens, the 3 year deal owners will start commanding longer term period deals in order to give their ships away and we'll move into a potential deal that can more commonly for 5 years. Speaker 200:30:40And if we get to the levels that we consider attractive, we definitely would fix out the ships. I don't think that potential will come this year. But going forward into 2025 when we really see the tightness of the lack of supply and sort of more oil on the water, it's a potential. It's definitely one of the things we're considering about at the time of the cycle where we need to capitalize this investment. But we really don't feel like we're that close to that point yet. Speaker 200:31:15There's still more upwards to go. Speaker 500:31:20Makes sense. And if I can just have one more question. You mentioned that the appetite for adding assets isn't very high now. But if you were to grow, would you prefer VLs or the Swiss Max segment and why? Speaker 200:31:49It depends. Overall, I think the I mean the VLCC market is less ordered at the moment. So we probably lean on the VLCC market. The VLCC market also has become a lot more flexible and you're able to triangulate the ships a lot more than what you were 5 years ago. So having as I mentioned earlier to B. Speaker 200:32:14Riley that the size of our fleet being relatively nimble and having good relationships, Having more VLCCs and having these niche backhaul opportunities or front haul cargoes, I would today, I would say that we'd prefer to expand into the VLCC market if you force us to. Speaker 100:32:33Or if you got us a good deal. Speaker 500:32:37Okay. Thank you, guys. Speaker 200:32:41Thank you. Operator00:32:45The next question comes from Erika Habe Wilson of Pareto Securities. Your line is open. Please go ahead. Speaker 600:32:55Hi, Erik. Yes. Hi, guys. Just I mean, I'm getting a lot of questions, of course. We've touched upon it already on the outperformance, but because I mean it is, as Petri said, a little bit hard to comprehend. Speaker 600:33:11I just see that you've done a few cargoes out of the Black Sea, it seems like, at least in Q2 so far on Suezmaxes. So just wanted to I mean, I realized CPC, there's no obviously no sanctions. There's no issues related to it. But I mean, it's slightly higher risk, I would say, than kind of mainstream Atlantic Suezmax cargo. So just wanted to hear your thinking around and what makes you how you're comfortable doing that? Speaker 600:33:42And then secondly, also on the VLCCs, it looks also like you've done some cargoes, at least 2 out of Venezuela. Again, no issues, no sanction, nothing at all, but just one thing to understand the premiums you're able to get there and your thinking around that because obviously, a few of the other listed companies are doing it now for whatever reason that might be. So just wanted to hear your thinking around that. Speaker 200:34:14Yes. I mean that sounds like sour grapes, but sure we can answer that. Look, I think if you look at where ships load crude oil, other than Norway and the U. S. Gulf, Almost every other place is a place that has an additional worst premium that you need insurance for, whether it's West Africa, whether it's the AG, whether it's Libya, whether it's the Black Sea. Speaker 200:34:40If you look at like, let's say, if we do some statistics and see where have there been more incidents on VLCCs or Suezmaxes. I think the most dangerous place you could go is probably the AG. I wouldn't say it's the Black Sea. I don't know, it's definitely not Libya or West Africa. And the AG is somewhere that everyone goes. Speaker 200:35:06The Suezmax cargo that we lifted from the Black Sea in 2024, they were all from CPC and I think most of them were fixtures to a U. S. Oil major. We don't we haven't carried any Russian oil under the price cap in 2024 or in most of 2023, since the beginning of 2023. So the outperformance is cargoes that are available and safe. Speaker 200:35:36I don't think that there's any higher risk of loading in Libya, West Africa, Venezuela, Black Sea than there is in the AG. And the AG is somewhere where everyone goes, as I said. And our job, of course, safety is a concern and the crews, they've been with my family for some of them for 25 years. So there's a very close relationship with these people. And but once we get passed and we feel comfortable with the safety, our job is to make as much money for the shareholders as we can. Speaker 200:36:09And some of these cargoes that we can find are also because of the relationships we have, which we mentioned earlier. And perhaps some of the companies that use like pools or especially the pools which don't have the relationships we have, they won't get access to these cargos. So I think it's more acumen rather than risk. Speaker 600:36:33Very good. Thank you. No sour grapes, just genuine questions being asked because I get them. So I have to ask you. Speaker 200:36:40Not by you, by the person asking. Speaker 600:36:43Okay. All right. Thank you, guys. Speaker 200:36:45Thank you. Thanks, Erik. Operator00:36:49The next question comes from Kaiment Molen of Value Investors Edge. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Speaker 700:36:58Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Most has already been covered, but I have a couple of modeling questions. First, it still may be a bit early to tell, but should we expect a negative effect from load to discharge accounting on the back end of the quarter? And secondly, general administrative expenses increased noticeably quarter over quarter. Speaker 700:37:20Is this attributable to the U. S. Listing? And should we expect this to be a one off? Speaker 100:37:26Yes. Eman, I'll answer both. On the ballast days and the loaded Speaker 200:37:32discharge, it's still a bit early to have a Speaker 100:37:36clear picture for what's going to happen at the end of the quarter. So, I would expect a slight effect like we see quarter on quarter. Obviously, one thing to keep in mind, and I think it's quite evident by the results that we report every 2 months, that it's beneficial to look at both the actual results of the reported quarter as well as the guidance figures for the next one together because there's obviously a relationship. And when we do see an impact towards the end of the quarter, obviously, this is always captured in the following one. On G and A, you rightly point out there's I mean, since last year, there's been an increase in our G and A expenses. Speaker 100:38:38The U. S. Listing element has 2 sides. 1 was which has been we've been hit by that mostly in 2023. It's what I would call as one off expenses. Speaker 100:38:52And some of that has actually been incurred this side of the year as well as some of the expenses we received towards the end of the year. But there's also an element of the ongoing expenses that we will incur due to our listing in the U. S. And in fact due to our dual listing. So some of the increased administrative expenses unfortunately is here to stay. Speaker 100:39:25I think our target and looking at the budgets and how it looked like last year, our target is to do better through the rest of the year compared to last year. But I wouldn't expect it to be anywhere close to 2022. So I kind of think that's the range with something closer to 2023. Now having said all that, it's a bit hard to extrapolate the total expense for the entire year if you look at individual quarters because there is quite a significant variation between quarters. And I do expect that both Q1 and Q2 will be higher than what we see towards the rest of the year. Speaker 100:40:17So keep that in mind. Speaker 700:40:20That's very helpful. Thank you. That's all for me. Operator00:40:29Waiting at this time, I'd like to hand the conference back over to Iraklis for closing remarks. Speaker 100:40:35Perfect. Thanks everyone for listening in. I think it was a quite productive call. We look forward to speaking again in August. Thank you. Speaker 100:40:43Thank you very much. Have a nice afternoon. Operator00:40:48Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining today's call. Have a great rest of your day. 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