Costamare Inc. (CMRE) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Costamare Inc. Conference Call on the Fourth Quarter 2023 Financial Results. We have with us Mr. Gregory Zikos, Chief Financial Officer of the company. [Operator Instructions] I must advise you that this conference is being recorded today, Wednesday, February 7, 2024. We would like to remind you that this conference call contains forward-looking statements. Please take a moment to read Slide #2 of the presentation, which contains the forward-looking statements. And I will now pass the floor to your speaker, Mr. Zikos. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. 2023 has been a growth year for Costamare. The company had revenues of $1.5 billion, and generated net income of about $350 million. Liquidity stood at around $1 billion as of year-end. Following our strategic decision in 2021 to enter into the dry bulk sector at an opportune time in the cycle, we have grown during 2023 our newly established trading platform to an operator, managing a fleet of 51 dry bulk vessels. Having invested $200 million in the new venture, we have a long-term commitment to the sector, whose fundamentals we view positively. Regarding Neptune Maritime leasing, the platform has been steadily growing on a prudent basis throughout 2023, having now concluded leasing transactions for 23 ships with a total value of about $250 million. We are committed to further growing the leasing business on the back of a healthy pipeline extending over the coming quarters. on the owned dry bulk fleet side, we are executing our strategy to renew the dry bulk fleet and increase its average size. During the year, we took the decision to disposal of 12 smaller-sized vessels and have agreed to acquire 3 Capesize and 1 Ultramax vessel. Subject to market conditions, our goal is to continue our expansion in the dry market. In the containership market, recent events have been contributing positively to the supply and demand dynamics, pushing up box and charter rates. Those recent developments are mitigating the effects of oversupply in the contingency market, as tonnage is expected to remain tight at least until the Chinese New Year. We have, however, proactively secured employment for 95% and 78% of our open days for '24 and '25, respectively, putting our contracted revenues for the containership vessels at $2.5 billion with a remaining time charter duration of about 3.6 years. Moving now to the slides presentation. On Slide 3, you can see our annual results. Net income was about $350 million or $2.95 per share. Adjusted net income was around $250 million or $2.07 per share. Our year-end liquidity stands at roughly $1 billion. Slide 4. Regarding CBI, we have chartered-in period 51 vessels with the majority of the fleet being on index-linked agreements. On our leasing platform, we have already invested around $120 million. Since inception, NML has financed 23 assets through sale and leaseback transactions and has a very healthy pipeline going forward. Slide 5. We have now acquired York's equity interest on Arkadia containerships -- on Arkadia containership. And I have now agreed to acquire 1 Capesize dry bulk vessel. In parallel, we have concluded the sale of 2 Supramax and 3 Handysize ships, while we have agreed to sell 3 more Handysize and 1 Supramax dry bulk ship. Slide 6. During the fourth quarter, we have financed the acquisition of 1 dry bulk vessel through a new hunting license facility, while we have roughly available $132 million for financing of further vessel acquisitions. We do continue to charter all our dry bulk vessels in the spot market, having entered into more than 4 discharging agreements since our last earnings release. On the containership side, as I already mentioned, our revenue days are fixed, 95% for '24 and 78% for '25, while our contracted revenues are $2.5 billion with a TEU-weighted average remaining duration of 3.6 years. Moving to Slide 7. During 2023, we have purchased approximately 6.3 million of common shares for a total consideration of $60 million. In addition, we continue to have a long and interactive dividend track record boosted by strong sponsor support. Slide 8. As mentioned already, our liquidity stands at roughly $1 billion. This liquidity gives us the ability to look for opportunities to grow the company on a healthy basis. Moving to Slide 9. Charter rates in the containership market have been rising daily across all segments, having benefited from the Red Sea crisis. The idle capacity remains at low levels at 0.8% (sic) [ 0.9% ]. And moving to the last slide. On Slide 10, you can see the recent dry bulk market trends in the spot and forward market. Charter rates remain volatile, that will be corrected from the highs of Q4 2023. Today's order book is at 8.5% of the total fleet. With that, we can conclude our presentation, and we can now take questions. Thank you. Operator, we can take questions now.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Chris Wetherbee with Citigroup.

This is Matt on for Chris. Just wanted to touch a little bit more on CBI. Last quarter, you mentioned having a fixed fleet of 59 dry bulk vessels on period charters, but this quarter 51. So we were just wondering if you could provide a little bit more detail on sort of what drives that variability on the platform from quarter-to-quarter? And how that can affect profitability levels as well as the magnitude of potential shift in that profit? I think that would be great to start.

Thanks for the question. First of all, you are right, it was close to 59 ships chartered in the previous quarter. We mentioned 51 now. It has nothing to do with our intention to grow the company further. It is just that during that quarter, specifically, there were some redeliveries which coincided altogether. And we are -- like we are now in the process of chartering in additional vessels. Now at the same time, I need to remind you that we also employ FFA. So -- I mean, instead of chartering in a vessel at some point, if you cannot find a suitable asset in the market, you can buy, for instance, FFA days for Capes -- for Panamaxes. So the smaller amount of ships chartered in has absolutely no effect and it should have been misconstrued as our willingness to swing the business quite the opposite. This is a long-term strategic decision, and we are committed to the dry bulk sector, both through CBI and also through our own dry bulk ships. So it is a matter of redeliveries that have coincided where the market is. We may be buying FFAs instead of chartering in ships. And in this business, we need to be opportunistic. More ships will be charted in when we find the right asset also at the right price.

Okay. Interesting. Okay, for the further granularity. And just as a follow-up, I wanted to touch a little bit more, too, on the topic of share repurchases. You've been holding off on buying back your stock over the last few months and just given the current plan that you guys have outstanding in terms of $30 million for common shares and $150 million for preferred, what was your plan moving forward with that? And sort of how do you think about how share count can move moving forward?

Yes. First of all, the share repurchases like the common stock dividends, this is a Board decision. And these are subjects that are part of the Board discussion every quarter. But leaving that aside for the time being, we are the majority shareholders, the founding family at about 60%. So both dividend and share repurchases that help the stock price, we are like -- the stock price go higher. We are 100% aligned. At the same time, regarding the optimal capital allocation, we need to be able to tap new opportunities where like there are. So we bought back common stock worth of $60 million during the years -- or sort of during last year. And we also did some part of this, in the past, some years ago. I'm not saying that we sort of exclude it. This is a Board decision and those issues are discussed, but I'm not ready to tell you that we're going to be buying back more stock like next quarter or in 2 quarters' time. This is all subject to market condition, and this is subject to the view we take regarding the optimal capital allocation of the company. So I'm afraid I cannot be more specific on that simply because this is an ongoing discussion. And for the time being, we feel that this is something that could happen the next quarter or the quarter after -- or like during '24, but I'm not in a position to give you an exact timing. It depends on market conditions.

Got it. Got it. Understood. So it would be fair to assume that for the foreseeable future at elevated stock prices, it's unlikely that repurchases are going to be executed on, correct?

No, I didn't say that because I believe that the stock is undervalued. And if you look at some NAV calculations, you will see that the stock's value, also considering the value of the containerships and also of the dry bulk vessels and the contracted revenues from the containerships and the net debt, I think on like NAV basis, the stock is worth much more than the $10 or like $11. So the fact that we are not buying back shares, it's not because we don't believe that the stock is undervalued. We definitely believe that the stock is undervalued. However, we still may -- we may find it optimal to use [ of the cash ] in order to buy ships or in order to boost the CBI or net maritime leasing. But it doesn't mean that because we don't buy back sales, we don't feel that the stock is undervalued, quite the opposite. The stock has been undervalued for quite some time now. As is in most of the cases, this is what's happening with the shipping stock. So we are definitely trading at below NAV.

The next question comes from Ben Nolan with Stifel.

I had a couple, but I wanted to start with the asset sales that you guys did. I know that in the [indiscernible] net after debt repayment, but could you give the gross proceeds from the asset sales?

I can tell you that for the ships we sold, after debt repayment, the net cash in total for the '23 is close to $80 million, more or less -- $79 million.

Okay. I guess my question is how much is that debt that we should expect to be repaid?

Yes, sorry, this debt for those ships has been repaid. So I mean we sold the ships, we paid back the debt, and the net equity proceeds were like $80 million for all the ships. Now the new ships we bought in total -- bought or sort of have agreed to buy, it's like 4 Capes. And you can assume that those are going to be funded with a leverage of close to 60% on the asset value. I think these are...

Okay. All right. My next question had to do with the Neptune leasing program. You guys still a little bit more to go under your original commitment, but obviously, it's growing. How do you think about that longer term? Is this something where once you reach sort of your commitment level that, that amount would grow? Or do you think in time your relative position shrinks because there's capital coming in from other sources that -- mean that your effective position is a little bit diluted? Or how are you thinking about that business?

Look, after now this business has grown -- I mean, when we started -- we started consolidating that business and we bought the shareholding interest in March of '23. So we talk about 3/4 of operation. And over those 3 quarters, the business has funding 1 to 2 vessels. We are like 23 today funded, and with a very strong pipeline going forward. So our goal is to further grow the business. And in order to boost our returns -- as you can imagine, we are also focusing on back leveraging our equity. So boosting our returns but at the same time, being able to participate in more transactions with our equity shareholder. Now when we reach the 250 -- with back levers, the 250, it could be total deals of -- depending on the asset and on the levers between [ $800 billion, $900 billion ], whatever the back levers will be. I think it's going to be a meaningful size. At this point in time, we're going to see how -- I mean how like -- whether we want to grow the business further, whether we want to have other people joining in, what are the alternatives, and listing, a lot of things. I'm not ready to talk about this yet. I mean the fact that we have options, it's a good thing. The fact that it is growing, it's good as well. And I have to stress that it's not growing for the sake of growth, it's growing based on deals that we feel from a credit perspective and also from a returns perspective, including the back levers, makes sense. So this is sort of a growing business, which completes the rest of our assets. You don't expect to have the volatility of the returns you have with the dry bulk vessels also in CBI. But it is, let's say, a steady return, which does make sense. And there are a lot of options at the moment, where like, we're going to be reaching the $1 billion of deals or [ $800 million ] whatever that is depending on the back lever. So we are quite positive on the light of business.

Okay. And then I guess my last question relates to container business. Obviously, your existing book is well covered, et cetera, asset values have fallen certainly from the peak. Are -- getting to a place where maybe deals and returns in the container market are getting close to something that you'd look to -- maybe come back to and invest in that space again? Or in your view, is there still some room to go?

I think there is still some room to go, although you can never predict the market, but you would take it one by one. If you look at new buildings, new building for containerships, they still remain at very high levels. So -- I mean this is the first thing. And the second thing -- also secondhand prices. Still, they are at levels which have come off, and they may come off even more. But where they are today, buying at levels that would make sense if you have to have -- first of all, if you want to have a good understanding of your sort of residual value risk with some potential upside. I think that we still have some way to go. Of course, I'd like the new buildings, will continue kicking in. Whether the asset prices and new building may make sense in a year's time or like 6 months or like in 2 years, I cannot tell. But for the time being, I think we need to be patient there. If we want to have a well structured transactions with like manageable downside and also with some residual upside.

Question comes from Climent Molins with Value Investor's Edge.

I wanted to follow up on the question on CBI. Could you provide some commentary on how the segment fared during the quarter? And secondly, has recent turmoil in the Red Sea had an effect on the trades you are engaged on, specifically on CBI?

Okay. Regarding CBI, we don't provide, in our press release, detailed segmental information, neither for CBI nor like for the dry bulk owned vessels or like for the containers or for Neptune Maritime leasing. There will be some information in our 6-K filings. But for the time being, I'm afraid, this is not part of our press release presentation. So we provided the full picture. And for every business, we provide the number of assets at CBI, at charter sort of investors, for example, with a generic description about the transactions there. Like, for example, that most of the ships are chartered in -- at index-linked charter rates. So I'm afraid that this is for CBI now. Regarding the Red Sea events in the CBI business, I cannot say that we had a huge effect on our [indiscernible] charters or like the profitability. For the Capes, for instance, the C3 or C5 may not be affected by that area. So I cannot say that we saw something, which made the market much more volatile. For the Capes, for instance, for Q4, we saw increased volatility because of adverse weather conditions in China. But this was not linked to the sort of Red Sea disruptions. So concluding, I cannot say that we saw any major effects in the CBI business.

Makes sense. I also want to follow up on Ben's question on net to leasing. As I understand it, it's fully consolidated in your financial statements. You mentioned potentially adding leverage to free up capital, but I was wondering, was there any debt outstanding on Neptune as of year-end?

There is. There is -- because Neptune, it is capitalized by our equity. And in the transaction, we conclude as Neptune. Neptune gives back leverage. So it gets that from third-party providers. For every transaction, it is entering into. So there is also leverage at the Neptune level. Now generally, the leverage of Neptune is at low levels in the region of, I don't know, between 35% to 45% depending on the transactions. But yes -- but in order to have solid returns on our equity investments in Neptune, we need to have some back levers there as well, however, at lower levels.

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Zikos for any closing remarks.

Thank you all for dialing in and for your interest in Costamare. We are looking forward to speaking with you again during the next quarter -- quarterly results. Thank you very much. Bye.

Conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.