Costamare Inc. ($CMRE)

Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Costamare Inc. Conference Call on the First Quarter 2026 Financial Results. We have with us Mr. Gregory Zikos, Chief Financial Officer of the company.[Operator's Instructions] I must advise you that this conference call is being recorded today, Wednesday, April 29, 2026. We would like to remind you that this conference call contains forward-looking statements. Please take a moment to read Slide #2 on the presentation, which contains the forward-looking statements. I will now pass the floor over to your speaker today, Mr. Zikos. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. During the first quarter of the year, the company generated net income of about $75 million. Total liquidity amounted to about $645 million. Executing on our strategy of renewing the fleet and securing long-term cash flows from high-quality counterparties, we have ordered a total of 16 new buildings from first-class Chinese shipyards. 12 of the ships are 9,200 TEUs and four are 3,100 TEUs capacity. The vessels are expected to be delivered between the fourth quarter of 2027 and the second quarter of 2030. Upon delivery, all ships will commence long-term charters with COSCO shipping of 15 and 8 years for the 12 9,000 TEU ships and the four 3,100 TEU vessels, respectively. We are pleased to expand our value and long-lasting relationship with COSCO Through the completion of our latest 16 newbuilding transaction. Incremental contracted revenues for the new charters amount to about $2.8 billion. The acquisitions will be funded with equity and debt. Pre and post-delivery financing for a tenure of up to 15 years has been arranged for all 16 ships with two leading Chinese financial institutions. In addition to the above, we have agreed to acquire secondhand 5,600 TEU vessels built in 2001. The acquisitions are expected to be completed in Q4 '26, upon which each vessels shall commence a 42-month time charter with a leading liner operator. As a consequence, total contracted revenues have reached $6.2 billion with a remaining time charter duration of 6.1 years. In light of the above, management is pleased to recommend to the Board of Directors to increase the quarterly dividend per share from $0.115 to $0.125 while rewarding our shareholders as a result of increased cash flows, profitability and visibility, the payment of that dividend is not expected to affect our capacity to continue growing on a healthy basis in a volatile market environment. Moving now to the slide presentation. On the first slide, you can see our first quarter results. Adjusted net income for the quarter was $76 million or $0.63 per share. Net income for the quarter was $75 million or $0.62 per share. Our liquidity stands at about $640 million. Management has announced the intention to recommend a dividend increase to the Board. Subject to approval, the quarterly dividend would increase from $0.115 to $0.125 per share, starting with the second quarter of 2026. Slide 4. We have concluded newbuilding contracts for 16 containers with expected deliveries between Q4 '27 and Q2 2030, bringing the total number of our vessels under construction to 22. Upon delivery, each vessel will commence a long-term charter with a leading liner company. We have already arranged pre- and post-delivery financing for all the newbuilding. Slide 5. Here, we show our newbuilding program. In total, we now have 22 vessels under construction, increasing the weighted average duration of our charter book by about two years. All our newbuildings have long-term employment and signed pre- and post-delivery financing already in place. Slide 6. This slide highlights the effect of the newbuilding program on our fleet age. By 2030, the program reduces average fleet age by about 3.7 years compared to the average age of our fleet had been not entered in the newbuilding contracts. Slide 7. Regarding SAP activity, we have agreed to acquire secondhand 5,600 TEU capacity containerships with expected delivery in Q4 '26. Upon delivery, these vessels have commenced a 42-month time charter with a leading liner. Both acquisitions are expected to be financed with debt and cash on hand. On the employment side, our revenue days are fixed 97% for '26 and 94% for '27, while our contracted revenues are $6.2 billion with a TEU weighted remaining time charter duration of 6.1 years. And moving to the last slide, charter rates in the containership market remain at robust levels. Yet the fleet remains at very low levels at 1%, indicating a fully employed market. With that, we can conclude our presentation, and we can now take questions. Thank you. Operator, we can take questions now.

[Operator's Instructions] As there are no further questions, I would like to pass the call over to Mr. Zikos for any closing remarks.

Thank you for dialing in and for your interest in the Costamare Q1 results call. We're looking forward to speaking with you again during the next quarterly results call. Thank you. Operator, we can conclude the call now.

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