EuroDry Ltd. (EDRY) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the EuroDry Ltd. Conference Call on the Second Quarter 2024 Financial Results. We have with us today Mr. Tasos Aslidis, Chief Financial Officer of the company. [Operator Instructions] I must advise you that this conference is being recorded today. Please be reminded that the company announced its results with a press release that has been publicly distributed. Before passing the floor to Mr. Aslidis, I would like to remind everyone that in today's presentation and conference call, EuroDry will be making forward-looking statements. These statements are within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Matters discussed may be forward-looking statements, which are based on current management expectations that involve risks and uncertainties that may result in such expectations not being realized. I kindly draw your attention to Slide #2 of the webcast presentation, which has the full forward-looking statement, and the same statement was also included to the press release. Please take a moment to go through the whole statement and read it. And now, I would like to pass the floor to Mr. Aslidis. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you all for joining us today for our scheduled conference call. I'm Tasos Aslidis, the CFO of EuroDry. Together with me is Mr. Simos Pariaros, our Chief Administrative Officer; and Ms. Athina Atalioti, our Finance Manager. Our Chairman and CEO, Aristides Pittas, who usually hosts this call, will not be able to join this presentation today due to overlapping engagements. The purpose of today's call is to discuss our financial results for the 6-month period and quarter ended June 30, 2024. Please turn to Slide 3 of the presentation to see our financial highlights for the period. For the second quarter of 2024, we reported total net revenues of $17.4 million and a net loss attributable to controlling shareholders of $0.41 million or $0.15 loss per share basic and diluted. Adjusted net loss attributable to controlling shareholders for the quarter was $0.45 million or $0.17 loss per share basic and diluted. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $5 million. Please refer to the press release that was released earlier today for a reconciliation of adjusted net loss attributable to controlling shareholders to adjusted EBITDA. We will go over our financial highlights in a bit more detail later in the presentation. As of August 8, 2024, we had repurchased a total of 313,318 shares of our common stock on the open market for a total of about $5 million under our repurchase plan of up to $10 million announced in August 2028. The program, which was renewed in August 2023 for another year, has been further extended for an additional year. We will continue to use our share repurchase program at management discretion, depending on the level of our stock price, to enhance our ability to increase long-term shareholder value. We're also very happy to announce our 2023 Sustainability Report, which was uploaded to our website today. Please now turn to Slide 4 for an overview of our chartering, operational and dry-docking highlights. On the chartering side, you can see that most of our charters fixed during last quarter are for short periods, varying from 20 to 25 days on the one end, to 80 to 100 days on the other end. Even the motor vessels, Ekaterini and Xenia, which are in longer-term charters until March and May 2025, respectively, have the rate of their charters linked to indices, to the Baltic Index, earning 105.5% and 108% respectively, above the average Baltic Kamsarmax Index, an index based on the 5 Kamsarmax time charter routes. This strategy is consistent with our view to be exposed to the market as we believe the fundamental supply and demand trends present a strong possibility for the market to strengthen in the near and medium term. It is expected that supply growth will be quite limited over the next couple of years due to below-average ordering for new vessels in the recent past. And thus, it is likely that any demand growth to be translated in increases to charter rates. We plan to continue trading under short-term charters for the time being until employment rates start firming up and we see the potential positive effect of demand increases. You can see the specifics of the various charters we fixed in the relevant slide, Slide 4. During this period, the second quarter of 2024, our motor vessels Starlight, Maria and Eirini P, underwent their scheduled dry-dockings and repairs from approximately 23, 26 and 31 days, respectively. Vessels Maria and Eirini P dry-docks started in June, in the second quarter, and were completed in July, and the related cost would mostly influence our third quarter results. Also, motor vessels Yannis Pittas and Christos K are currently undergoing their scheduled dry-dockings. In fact, we have decided to perform earlier their dry-dockings, mostly for [ commercial ] reasons related to them being fully available for employment in case the markets meaningfully recover in the near future. Finally, motor vessel Good Heart encountered -- a commercial offhire last quarter -- a waiting time of 4.5 days between 2 charters. Subsequently, the vessel also experienced a technical offhire for about 10 days due to a required main engine too fragile to repair. Please turn to Slide 5. EuroDry's fleet consists of 13 vessels, including 5 Panamax carriers, 5 Ultramaxes, 2 Kamsarmaxes and 1 Supramax. We think of our fleet as having 2 clusters: A modern [ eco ] one of 8 vessels all built after 2014; and our vintage 5 Panamaxes, all built in Japan at the highest standards of their time, having been the workhorses of the sector. Of our 13 dry bulk carriers, our 13 dry bulk carriers have a total cargo capacity of about 920,000 deadweight tons, with an average age of about 13.5 years. At this point, I would like to remind you that as previously discussed, EuroDry owns 61% of the entities, of the ship-owning companies that own motor vessels Christos K and Maria. The remaining 39% is owned by owners represented by NRP Project Finance, to which we refer as we do in the presentations as NRP investors. Next, please turn to Slide 6 to see a graphical representation of our fleet employment. As you can see and consistent with my earlier remarks, fixed rate coverage for the remainder of 2024 stands at around 22% through charters. However, this picture excludes ships on index charters, which are open to market fluctuations, but nevertheless, have secured employment. At this point, let me pass the floor to our Chief Administrative Officer, Mr. Simos Pariaros, to go over the recent market developments.

Thank you, Tasos. Good morning from elsewhere, ladies and gentlemen. Together, we will walk through some market highlights today. Turning on to Slide 8 now. We go over the market highlights for the second quarter of 2024 up until recently. In the second quarter, the average spot market rate for Panamaxes was around $14,500 per day. By August, spot rates had slightly risen to just below $15,000. In the meanwhile, 1 year time charter rates stood for Panamaxes at approximately $16,000 per day during the quarter and have shown a slight softening in the past weeks. However, rates still represent a significant improvement from around $10,500 that was during the same period last year, which marks a notable increase of nearly 50%. This uplift in employment rate was primarily driven by the ongoing Panama and Red Sea disruptions. Please now turn to Slide 9 to see some data from the recent IMF update. The Fund sees the global economy to experience modest growth over the next 2 years with cooling activity in the U.S., a stabilization in Europe and stronger consumption and exports from China. As a result, the IMF maintained its 2024 growth forecast up 3.2%, consistent with its April projection, while slightly increasing next year's forecast by 0.1 percentage points to 3.3%, with China and India bringing the most notable upward revisions. On the other end, Japan's growth has been revised the most downward for this year to 0.7%, down from 0.9%, together with Russia in 2025, which is projected to go down from 1.5% -- to 1.5% from 1.8% in the previous quarter. As the weight of China in dry bulk shipping is the driver of this market, we continue to monitor China's economy closely. Its property and infrastructure sectors, which have played a vital role in shaping this market over the past 2 decades, are not growing at levels seen in the past anymore. And despite the fact that the real estate sector has been saturated for more than 3 years now, we see different trades and commodities developing like bauxite imports from Africa along with others, which have given significant support to the dry bulk market and are expected to continue to do so. So the question is, what will drive this market to a more profitable level if its main workhorse is getting more and more tired? On this note, let's say a few things about India, which seem to be the next driver that will help the world economy to continue growing at healthy levels and have material effects on the dry bulk trade as well. In that respect, India's growth is projected to remain robust at about 7% this year. This upward revision is attributed to improved private consumption, predominantly. However, for next year, the IMF has cautioned that growth is expected to slow down a bit to 6.5%. Meanwhile, the remaining economies in Asia, like the ASEAN-5 group, still remains the main engine for the global economy, with the forecast remaining broadly unchanged from April. Now according to Clarksons, tonmiles demand for dry bulk trade is presently expected to grow by about 4.4% in 2024. This includes about 1.6% uplift for the entire year due to the Red Sea and Panama Canal disruptions. A longer duration of these disruptions in these regions could potentially drive demand even higher. Lower speeds and further congestion are other factors that could further boost demand this year. Demand in 2025 is projected to grow by about 0.5 percentage point, assuming conditions in the Panama Canal and the Red Sea normalize, and the conflicts are resolved in the Red Sea. If the situation in these areas remain unchanged, we could be surprised on the upside, but at the moment, any prediction looks very unsettled. Now please turn to Slide 10. Uncertainties about the future [indiscernible] and high new building prices have led to the low order book continuing. As of August 2024, the order book as a percentage of the total fleet is only 9.7%, which is near the lowest historical levels. This suggests a low fleet growth over the next couple of 2 to 3 years. Complementing this low fleet growth, we also have the effect of increased slow steaming and expected scrapping due to the introduction of the new environmental regulations. This could reduce the effective available bulk supply even further. Now turning on to Slide 11. Let us now look into the supply fundamentals in a bit more detail. According to Clarksons' latest report, new deliveries as a percentage of the total fleet are expected to be about 3.6% this year, 3.3% next year and 4.7% in 2026 and onwards. The actual fleet growth is, of course, expected to be lower than the aforementioned figures due to scrapping and slippage. Also note that about 9% of the fleet is older than 20 years old, and therefore, a good candidate for scrapping, especially if the market remains at current or lower levels. Please now turn to Slide 12, where we summarize our outlook for the dry bulk market. The bulk carrier market has been positive so far in 2024, with average freight rates rising by 35% year-over-year. Despite a slight softening during the last few weeks of July, rates remained healthy and above last year's levels. Robust demand growth, especially in the Atlantic region, has positively impacted the market, with the global seaborne dry bulk trade indicator showing an increase. Additionally, disruptions in the Red Sea and Panama Canal have also contributed positively. Panamax freight rates reached almost $16,000 per day in the second quarter of 2024, reflecting a 35% increase compared to the second quarter last year. The outlook for the second half of 2024 is optimistic as seasonality kicks in. The rerouting of vessels away from the Red Sea remains a key focus, with Suez Canal bulker transits staying relatively stable in recent months, leading to an estimated 1.2% increase in bulker demand. Restrictions on the Panama Canal have continued to impact the market, with bulker transits recently being less than 1/3 of normal levels. However, additional daily slots through the rest of the year could increase bulker transits and bring trends back to normal, potentially slightly reducing the demand for ships. Now looking ahead to next year, again, we have to take under consideration the timing of the return to normality of the 2 major passages of Suez and Panama, something that is really hard to predict considering the geopolitical circumstances in the Middle East. In any case, the relatively small and manageable order book, the introduction of further environmental regulations, the rise in operational dry-docking cost, which makes the operations of other ships less competitive, creates favorable dynamics, which could trigger a very strong market if the world economy grows at a healthy pace and dry bulk trade demand creates a necessary spike. Electricity demand worldwide is growing at a fast pace, greatly supported by the introduction of artificial intelligence and electrification of the vehicle fleet, something that provides great support in the dry bulk market. However, as renewables further penetrate the electricity mix, coal trade dynamics and prospects remain to be further evaluated in the immediate future. Let's now turn to Slide 13. The left side of the slide shows the evolution of 1-year time charter rates of Panamax vessels since 2005. As of August, the 1-year time charter rate for Panamax ships with capacity of about 75,000 tons was just below $16,000 per day, which is approximately 16% above the historical median rate, which is in the region of $13,500 a day. Vessel prices, as you can clearly see, are well above average prices seen in previous years. And with that, I will now pass the floor to our CFO, Tasos Aslidis, to continue with some financial data.

Thank you very much, Simos. As mentioned in the beginning of the presentation, together with Athina, we will give you an overview of our financial highlights for the second quarter and first half of 2024 and compare them to the same periods of last year. I will now pass the floor to Athina first to start our review. Athina, please go ahead.

Thank you very much, Tasos. Good morning from me as well, ladies and gentlemen. Let's turn to Slide 15. For the second quarter of 2024, the company reported total net revenues of $17.4 million, representing a 68.7% increase over total net revenues of $10.3 million during the second quarter of 2023, which was the result of the higher time charter rates our vessels earned and the increased average number of vessels operated during the second quarter of 2024 compared to the same period of 2023. The company reported net loss attributable to controlling shareholders for the period of $0.41 million as compared to net loss attributable to controlling shareholders of $1.2 million for the same period of 2023. The net gain attributable to the noncontrolling interest of about $80,000 in the second quarter of 2024, representing gain attributable to the 39% ownership by the NRP investors. Interest and other financing costs, including interest income for the second quarter of 2024, amounted to $2 million compared to $1.25 million for the same period of 2023. Interest expense during the second quarter of 2024 was higher mainly due to the increased amount of debt and the increased benchmark rate of our loans, while interest income was lower due to lower cash balances during the period as compared to the same period of last year. Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter of 2024 was $5 million compared to $2.5 million achieved during the second quarter of 2023. Basic and diluted loss per share attributable to the company for the second quarter of 2024 was $0.15 calculated on about 2.7 million basic and diluted weighted average number of shares outstanding compared to a loss per share of $0.43 calculated on about 2.8 million basic and diluted weighted average number of shares outstanding for the second quarter of 2023. Excluding the effect on the loss attributable to controlling shareholders for the quarter of the unrealized gain on derivatives, the adjusted loss for the quarter ended June 30, 2024 would have been $0.17 per share basic and diluted compared to adjusted loss of $0.48 per share basic and diluted, respectively, for the quarter ended June 30, 2023. Usually, security analysts do not include the above items in their public estimates of earnings per share. Let's now look at the numbers for the corresponding 6-month period ended June 30, 2024 and compare it to last year. For the second half of the year, the company reported total net revenues of $31.9 million, representing a 47% increase over total net revenues of $21.7 million during the first half of 2023, which was a result of the increase in time charter rates of our vessels and -- and the increased average number of vessels operating during the first half of 2024 compared to the same period of 2023. The company reported a net loss attributable to controlling shareholders of $2.2 million as compared to a net loss attributable to controlling shareholders of $2.7 million for the first half of 2023. The net loss attributable to the noncontrolling interest of about $50,000 in the first half of 2024 represents a loss attributable to the 39% ownership of the NRP investors. Interest and other financing costs, including interest income for the first half of 2024, amounted to $4.1 million compared to $2.9 million for the same period of 2023. This increase is mainly due to the increased amount of debt in the current period as well as the increase in the benchmark rate of our loan, while interest income was lower due to lower cash balances compared to the same period of 2023. Adjusted EBITDA for the first half of 2024 was $7.1 million compared to $4.8 million achieved during the first half of 2023. Basic and diluted loss per share attributable to the company for the first half of 2024 was $0.81, calculated on about 2.2 million basic and diluted weighted average number of shares outstanding compared to a loss per share of $0.98 calculated on about 2.9 million basic and diluted weighted average number of shares outstanding. Excluding the effect on the net loss attributable to controlling shareholders for the first half of the year of the unrealized gain on derivatives, the adjusted loss for the 6-month period ended June 30, 2024, would have been $1.35 per share basic and diluted compared to adjusted loss of $0.33 per share basic and diluted, respectively, for the 6-month period ended June 30, 2023, excluding the unrealized loss on derivatives. As previously mentioned, usual security analysts do not include the above items in their published estimates of earnings per share. Let's now turn to Slide 16 to review our fleet performance. We will start our review by looking at our fleet utilization rate for the second quarter of 2024 and 2023. As usual, our fleet utilization rate is broken down into commercial and operational components. During the second quarter of 2024, our commercial utilization rate was 99.6% while our operational utilization rate was 99.4%, compared to 98.3% commercial and 95% operational for the second quarter of last year. On average, 13 vessels were owned and operated during the second quarter of 2024, earning an average time charter equivalent rate of $14,427 per day compared to 10 vessels in the same period of 2023, earning on average $12,179 per day. Our total daily operating expenses, including management fees, general and administrative expenses but excluding dry-docking costs, were $7,062 per vessel per day during the second quarter of 2024 compared to $7,656 per vessel per day for the second quarter of 2023. If we move further down on this table, we can see the cash flow breakeven level, which takes into account in addition to the above, the dry-docking expenses, interest expenses and loan repayments. For the second quarter of 2024, our daily cash flow breakeven level was $13,240 per vessel per day compared to $14,128 per vessel per day for the same period of 2023. Let us now go over the same figures for the 6-month period of 2024 and compare them to the same period of last year. During the first half of 2024, our commercial and operational rate was 99.8% and 98.7%, respectively, compared to 99% commercial and 97.4% operational for the same period of last year. On average, 13 vessels were owned and operated during the first half of 2024, earning an average time charter equivalent rate of $13,452 per day, compared to 10 vessels in the same period of 2023, earning on average $11,393 per day. Our vessel operating expenses, again, including management fees and general and administrative expenses, were $6,964 per vessel per day in the first half of this year compared to $7,306 per vessel per day for the same period of last year. Again, if we look further down in the table, we can see the cash flow breakeven rate for the first 6 months of 2024, which is $13,101 per vessel per day compared to $13,661 per vessel per day for the first half of 2023. Let's turn our attention to Slide 17 to review our debt profile. As of June 30, 2024, our outstanding bank debt stood at $98.1 million and is expected to decline to about $67.5 million by the end of 2026. In the remainder of 2024, our debt repayment amounts about $8.5 million. Then in both 2025 and 2026, loan repayments are due to decrease to about $10.5 million and $11.6 million, respectively, thus significantly reducing our cash flow breakeven level. It is worth mentioning on this table that the total cost of our senior debt, with an average margin of about 2.39% and assuming a 3-month SOFR rate of 5.25%, is 7.64%. Including the swap portion of debt, the cost of our senior debt stands at around 7.43%. At the bottom of this slide, you can see our projected cash flow breakeven level for the next 12 months, broken down into its various components. Overall, we expect our overall cash flow breakeven level to be around $12,639 per vessel per day and our EBITDA breakeven levels to be around $8,745 per vessel per day. And with that, I will pass the floor back to our CFO, Tasos Aslidis.

Thank you very much, Athina. Let's now conclude our presentation by moving to Slide 18, where we can see some highlights from our balance sheet. This slide offers a snapshot of our assets and liabilities. As of June 30, 2024, cash and other current assets stood at about $22.8 million in our balance sheet. The other major component, the book value of our vessels, was approximately $197.2 million, resulting in total book value of our assets of about $220 million. On the liability side, our debt as of the end of June, as Athina previously mentioned, stood at about $98 million, representing around 44.6% of the book value of our assets, while other liabilities amounted to about $5.2 million or about 2.4% of our total assets. The remaining book value of $116.7 million, inclusive of the book value of our minority shareholders' interest, the NRP investors, of about $9.7 million, leaves, if we subtract the minority shareholders' book value, $107 million of book value attributed to our controlling shareholders and resulting in a book value per share of about $38. However, based on market transaction and other market reports, we can value our fleet, as of June 30, way above the book value, and we estimate that to be $270 million worth, more than $70 million or approximately 37% higher than the respective book values, thus suggesting an NAV per share in excess of $63. Our share price trading around or between $20 and $24 recently, trades at a substantial discount compared to our net asset value, and thus represents a significant opportunity for appreciation potential for our shareholders and investors. At this point, our presentation is concluded and I would like to open the floor for questions, if there are any.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Mark Reichman with NOBLE Capital Markets.

It seems like the net revenue, our estimates were pretty much in line with the actuals this quarter. Where we were off were the voyage expenses and the dry-docking expenses. And so I was kind of wondering if you could just kind of provide a little more color on those 2 line items for the quarter and expectations for the remainder of the year.

Yes. I think, Mark, the dry-dock expenses first depends on when dry-dockings happen. We have 13 vessels. They dry-dock twice every 5 years. So about 1 vessel on average should be dry-docked every quarter. Last quarter, we had more than 1 dry-dock. We had one that completed during the quarter and we had a couple of dry-docks starting in the quarter, which we got some cost attributed to them. So that resulted in the higher dry-docking costs. On the same note, as I mentioned already, we have 2 dry-docks scheduled for next quarter and 2 dry-docks being -- are being performed at the turn of the quarter. So we should expect a little higher dry-dock expenses next quarter as well. On the revenue side, the voyage expenses you have to do with the type of contracts the vessels enter when they are booked. If we have to travel to get to the area that we load the cargo, we incur -- we get paid the ballast bonus, but at the same time, we pay for the for the voyage expenses and depending whether we have only time charter contracts or voyage contracts which includes the ballast leg, you might have more or less voyage expenses.

That's helpful. And then the second part of my question is, we've been in kind of a favorable charter rate environment, and that looks to kind of continue at least to stabilize maybe for the remainder of the year with a little more uncertainty in 2025. And I guess my question is, even though we've produced positive EBITDA, I mean we've had 2 consecutive quarters of negative EPS. And so what, I guess what will be the variable to move EPS into the positive category? Or would you kind of expect positive EBITDA and negative EPS in the third quarter? I guess I'm just kind of looking for -- I mean we're in kind of a favorable environment, yet we've had 2 consecutive quarters of loss on a per share basis. And so what dynamic changes that looking ahead?

I think it's a combination, of course, of the market, but also on the -- on how many vessels, in our case, have to go through dry-dock. As you can see, Slide 16, we give you there the breakeven level per day. So to cover our expenses, we have in the past -- in the first 6 months of this year, we had a breakeven cost of $13,000 per day. That is, if you convert this to a gross time charter equivalent rate, probably our vessels needed to earn around $14,500 to $15,000 a day to breakeven in the first 6 months. They earn, as you can see on Slide 16, $13,450. So that is the metric that we should follow. If you look again on Slide 17, going -- and this is for the next 12 months, so it's not broken down by quarter. We expect to have a breakeven level of $12,000 -- on a cash flow basis, of course, $12,600. So we should be able to earn in excess of $14,000 to have a cash flow positive balance, but also earnings, because loan repayments roughly are equivalent to our depreciation.

Okay. And so that's kind of sensitive to what the time charter rates will look like. But I mean as long as the -- over the next 12 months, if the time charter equivalent rates hold, you should be, maybe you have a little wider spread or you'll need to kind of get your expenses down, which would maybe mean fewer dry-docking expenses. So -- but there's still a fairly, I guess it's not a real wide margin between breakeven and the time charter equivalent rate, so okay. Well, no, that's very helpful. I appreciate that. Is there any additional color on that, or...?

I think the only additional color I would say is that we -- as Simos analyzed, supply in the dry bulk market is very tight in the sense of the order book -- the orders that have been placed over the last -- of the previous 3 years were low. That creates very low supply growth over the next couple of years. So really, we are waiting to see whether demand will return to average, historical average of higher levels for that, and that would be translated directly to rate increases. That's why we are keeping most of our fleet exposed to the market because we anticipate and we hope that there would be a situation where the market will perform better.

Our next question comes from the line of Lars Eide with Arctic Securities.

Just a quick one for me. I think you mentioned this for Good Heart for this quarter, but just in general, how should we think about offhire days for a vessel with multiple charters within the same quarter? Is there like a general rule of thumb or will it vary from case to case?

I mean the commercial offhire we reported was, I would have to say, an exception, to have to wait before you book your next charter. Of course, any technical offhires are a matter of incidents that happen on operations. The rates we typically report include any ballast leg that is part of the charter. So if there is a ballast leg in the charter, we include the ballast bonus minus the voyage expenses to provide the time charter equivalent for the full period. So I would say, for our own modeling purposes, we use an average of 1 to 1.5 days of offhire per quarter as a capsule average outside dry-docking.

Our next question comes from the line of Poe Fratt with A.G.P.

Good afternoon, Tasos. I was just wondering, if you did sort of the math -- we're following up on the last question, if you sort of do the math on what's in dry-dock and what you've highlighted, I'm sort of coming up with an idle day number in the third quarter, about 150 days. Is that...?

In the third quarter, we would have 2 full dry-docks. So that's roughly 50 days. Plus 2 continuing dry-docks, another, let's say, 35 days. So I would say around 85 days, give or take, would be the offhire days due to dry-dock in the third quarter. That is the order of magnitude. Now, they can play up or down a bit, but I assume 25 days for the 2 full dry-docks. And because 2 are at the turn of the quarter, I assume something like 35 days.

Yes. I guess I was looking at the Maria and Eirini that were still on dry-dock in July, that added about -- it looks like about 50 days and then you have the 2 other ones. So I mean shouldn't it be over 100?

Yes, it could be. I didn't have in front of me the -- in Q3 of Maria and Eirini, but if it's 50, then total would be a bit more than 100, yes. I think here is 43 days that we have that were in Q3 plus, roughly 50, give or take for the other 2, yes. 100 days sounds right.

And then do you have any dry-docks currently scheduled for the fourth quarter? Or should it be a pretty quiet quarter from a dry-docking perspective?

I think to the best of my recollection, I think it's a pretty quiet quarter. It's a pretty dry quarter, dry-docking wise.

I like the pun. When you look at the stock buyback program, it seemed to slow down a little bit in the second quarter. Is that a function of the stock price? And correspondingly, how sensitive is the stock buyback program to the stock price?

The stock buyback program has to comply with certain limits that are imposed by the SEC. We cannot buy back more than a certain percentage of the daily volume and we cannot trade during the whole day. So we are utilizing in full, to the full extent that we can, but because of the lower volume and the other limits where we had to buy back fewer shares, correct, Simos?

Exactly, and further to what Tasos mentioned, it's not only a matter of volume. When you buy back shares on behalf of your company, you cannot buy from the offer. So it has to be a match on our bid. So otherwise, we cannot go aggressive. As you know, buyback rules are extremely restrictive and they are there to protect the participants of the market. So we have to follow them and respect them. So it is not up to us to increase the liquidity and try to buy more stock. We're doing the best we can and we will possibly continue to do so, but we have to follow the rules.

And we're doing the best we can because we think it's a great opportunity to buy back our stock. We trade at such a big discount. So it's a great opportunity. We want to be the first to exploit it to the maximum extent.

That's really helpful. Yes, it wasn't an intentional slowdown, it was just a technical one. That's great.

So we have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. And I'll turn the call back over to Mr. Tasos Aslidis, CFO, for closing remarks.

Thank you very much for attending. I would like to wish everybody a good remainder of the summer and we look forward to seeing all of you again in our Q3 earnings call sometime in November. Bye-bye, everybody.

And this concludes today's conference and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.