Earnings call transcript: Global Ship Lease's Q3 2025 focus on fleet flexibility

Global Ship Lease (GSL) held its Q3 2025 earnings call, highlighting its strategic focus on fleet flexibility amid a challenging global trade environment. The company reported strong financial performance, with total contracted revenues of $1.9 billion and a significant reduction in outstanding debt. With a current P/E ratio of just 3.19 and an impressive "GREAT" overall financial health score according to InvestingPro, GSL's operational and financial strategies indicate resilience in a fluctuating market. The stock is currently trading near its 52-week high of $33.08, recently breaking through this level.

Key Takeaways

• Total contracted revenues reached $1.9 billion.
• Cash position stood at $562 million, with $72 million restricted.
• Reduced outstanding debt to below $700 million by year-end.
• Increased annualized dividend by 67% over the past 18 months.
• Achieved 96% charter coverage for 2026.

Company Performance

Global Ship Lease demonstrated robust performance in Q3 2025, focusing on its fleet of mid-size and smaller container ships. The company capitalized on the growing demand for flexible shipping solutions, securing long-term charters with strategic optionality. This adaptability positions GSL favorably in a fragmented supply chain environment. InvestingPro data shows GSL's impressive return on equity of 26% and return on invested capital of 15%, demonstrating effective asset utilization in this challenging sector.

Financial Highlights

• Total contracted revenues: $1.9 billion
• Cash position: $562 million (with $72 million restricted)
• Debt reduction: From $950 million at the end of 2022 to under $700 million by year-end
• Dividend increase: 67% over 18 months, reaching $2.50 per share

Outlook & Guidance

GSL remains committed to maintaining balance sheet resilience and pursuing an opportunistic fleet renewal strategy. The company is closely monitoring geopolitical and regulatory uncertainties while maintaining flexibility in its charter agreements. With diluted EPS of $10.76 for the last twelve months and an EPS forecast of $10.34 for FY2025, GSL appears undervalued according to InvestingPro's Fair Value assessment. Analysts have set price targets ranging from $32 to $42, reflecting mixed opinions on the company's growth trajectory.

Executive Commentary

Georgios Youroukos, Executive Chairman, emphasized the growing demand for flexible mid-sized and smaller container ships, stating, "Less efficient and more fragmented supply chains are increasing demand for our fleet." CEO Thomas Lister highlighted the strategic advantages of investing in mid-life tonnage amid regulatory uncertainties.

Risks and Challenges

• Trade route disruptions, particularly through the Red Sea, could impact capacity.
• Regulatory uncertainties may affect fleet operations and investments.
• Fluctuations in global trade patterns could influence charter rates.
• The shrinking sub-10,000 TEU fleet presents both challenges and opportunities.

Global Ship Lease's Q3 2025 earnings call underlined its strategic adaptability and financial strength, positioning the company to navigate ongoing market challenges effectively. With a strong Altman Z-Score of 7.85 indicating solid financial health and a free cash flow yield of 12%, GSL offers investors an interesting opportunity in the shipping sector. For deeper insights into GSL's financial health, valuation metrics, and additional ProTips, check out the comprehensive Pro Research Report available on InvestingPro, which transforms complex Wall Street data into clear, actionable intelligence for smarter investing decisions.

Full transcript - Green Scientific Labs Holdings Inc (GSL) Q3 2025:

Tina, Conference Operator: Thank you for standing by. My name is Tina, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Global Ship Lease third quarter 2025 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question, press star one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, press star one again. Thank you. It is now my pleasure to turn today's call over to Thomas Lister, CEO of Global Ship Lease. Sir, the floor is yours.

Thomas Lister, CEO, Global Ship Lease: Thank you very much. Hello everyone, and welcome to the Global Ship Lease third quarter 2025 earnings conference call. You can find the slides that accompany today's presentation on our website at www.globalshiplease.com. As usual, slides two and three remind you that today's call may include forward-looking statements that are based on current expectations and assumptions and are, by their nature, inherently uncertain and outside of the company's control. Actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements due to many factors, including those described in the safe harbor section of the slide presentation. We would also like to direct your attention to the risk factors section of our most recent annual report on our 2024 Form 20F, which was filed in March 2025. You can find the form on our website or on the SEC's.

All of our statements are qualified by these and other disclosures in our reports filed with the SEC. We do not undertake any duty to update forward-looking statements. The reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measures to which we will refer during this call to the most directly comparable measures calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP usually refer to the earnings release that we issued this morning, which is also available on our website. I'm joined, as usual, today by our Executive Chairman, Georgios Youroukos, and our Chief Financial Officer, Tassos Psaropoulos. George will begin the call with high-level commentary on GSL and our industry, and then Tassos and I will take you through our recent activity, quarterly results and financials, and the current market environment. After that, we'll be pleased to answer your questions. Turning now to slide four, I'll pass the call over to George.

Georgios Youroukos, Executive Chairman, Global Ship Lease: Thank you, Tom, and good morning, afternoon, or evening to all of you joining us today. Global Ship Lease's focus continues to be on optionality, as geopolitical and trade policy uncertainty continues to be a major factor throughout the third quarter. As we have seen in recent weeks with the IMO net-zero framework, USTR, and China port fees, all of which were deferred at the 11th hour or later, even policies that are proposed without even fully coming into effect are having far-reaching real-world implications. All of these real and potential factors are contributing to two major effects, both of which play to our advantage. Number one, making supply chains less efficient, which means that more ships are needed to transport a given quantity of cargo. Number two, increasing the value of flexible, mid-size, and smaller container ships such as those in our fleet.

Now, on the IMO deferment, this accrues particularly to the benefit of older conventionally fueled vessels that are now likely to have a longer economic life. Taken together with aggregate growth in global containerized trade, these factors are contributing to a situation where there is essentially zero idle capacity for the vessel size segments in which we operate. Thus, we continue to see strong interest in chartering our vessels, typically on a multi-year basis. Through the first nine months of 2025, we added $778 million in contracted revenues, with full contract coverage for the remaining of 2025, 96% coverage for 2026, and 74% coverage for 2027. This offers us stability and certainty at a time where both are generally in short supply.

Our progress in securing additional charter coverage, adding to our revenue backlog, and fortifying our balance sheet has enabled us to achieve strong trade ratings across the board, including an investment-grade rating on our US private placement notes. These same factors, notably including a clutch of recently agreed long-term charters, have put us in a position to once again increase our supplemental dividend, bringing our overall dividend to $2.50 per share on an annualized basis. That is a 19% increase being announced today. If you look at where our dividend was just over a year ago, which was $1.50 annualized, the total increase is 67%, all done on a non-speculative basis on the back of real contracted revenues and without compromising our ability to establish a fortress balance sheet and position GSL for opportunistic fleet renewal at the right time.

With everything going on in the world, both GSL and our customers are acutely aware that many of our assumptions and understandings may be turned upside down from one second to the next. In this environment, we are simultaneously locking in the high value and forward visibility that comes from tight charter contracts with top-tier global liners, while also making sure that we have the strategic and financial flexibility to respond to the challenges and the opportunities of a fast-changing world and the cyclical industry. In this way, we are maximizing GSL's optionality and putting ourselves in the position to protect and generate shareholder value no matter what is waiting around the corner. Now, with that, I will turn the call over to Tom.

Thomas Lister, CEO, Global Ship Lease: Thank you, George. Hello again, everyone. Please turn to slide five to see our diversified charter portfolio. As of September 30, we have over $1.9 billion in forward contracted revenues, with 2.5 years of remaining contract cover. Through the first nine months of 2025, we added 38 charters, including extension options exercised, for almost $780 million in contracted revenues, of which about $380 million were added in the third quarter. Slide six is where we discuss our dynamic capital allocation policy. With the inherent cyclicality of our industry, we consider it essential to look at the big picture in order to remain on the front foot, manage risk, and capitalize on opportunities as they arise. As George mentioned, this has only become more important in the current environment. Optionality remains key as we navigate this environment and tackle our priorities.

Among other things, these include returning capital to our shareholders through our just upsized $2.50 per share annualized dividend and strengthening our balance sheet. To that end, we've continued to delever to grow equity value and to increase our financial resilience and cash reserves to manage the various geopolitical challenges and uncertainties that confront the industry with growing frequency. Of course, we need cash on hand to cover CapEx requirements and to seize the right investment opportunities as and when they arise, especially, as we've observed on various occasions, because the best such opportunities tend to crop up when capital is otherwise scarce. We're proud to have made GSL a stable and liquid platform that allows investors to participate in the industry, with us managing and mitigating the risks of the down cycle and negative volatility while maximizing access to super returns in the up cycle.

Turning to slide seven, this slide shows the cyclicality of our industry and how we have managed it. We want to emphasize our history of disciplined capital allocation regarding investments, buying ships during downturns where asset prices are depressed, or structuring deals such that downsides are limited and upsides are substantial. This also shows that it is at and near the bottom of cycles where the opportunities for outsized value are to be captured. I'll now pass the call to Tassos to discuss our financials.

Georgios Youroukos, Executive Chairman, Global Ship Lease: Thank you, Tom. Slide eight shows our financial highlights for the first nine months of 2025. I would like to emphasize a few key takeaways. Earnings and cash flow are up compared to the first nine months of 2024. Our cash position is $562 million, of which $72 million is restricted. The remainder ensures that we can fully cover our covenants, work at capital needs, and manage the potential financial implication of geopolitical issues, which seems to be arising with increasing frequency and sharpness. It also provides dry powder both for CapEx to keep our existing fleet commercially relevant and for disciplined investments in fleet renewal if and when the right opportunities emerge. Of course, importantly, it supports payment of our expanded dividend.

Earlier this year, we completed an $85 million refinancing that pushed our weighted average maturity to 4.7 years and brought our blended cost of debt to 4.34%. We also realized a $28.3 million gain from the sale of three older vessels. Our strong credit ratings were affirmed. We have $33 million remaining under our opportunistic share buyback program, and we continue to deliver and build equity value. Slide nine now shows our ongoing process to rebuild resilience, de-risk our balance sheet, and grow equity value. The graph on the left shows our progress in reducing our outstanding debt. From $950 million at the end of 2022, we are on track to be under $700 million at the end of this year, even as we have acquired ships and put leverage on. The graph on the right is the more telling perspective as our financial leverage has reached 0.5 times.

We have come a long way since the days of 8-plus times leverage. Slide ten. The left graph shows our cost of debt, which we have lowered to a blended 4.34%, down from over 6% in 2020. We have continually reduced our margin even as SOFR has risen materially. The graph on the right shows our very competitive break-even rates, where interest rate reductions have more or less offset OPEX inflation. With that, I will turn the call back over to Tom to discuss the market and our fleet.

Thomas Lister, CEO, Global Ship Lease: Thanks, Tassos. Slide 11 reiterates our emphasis on mid-size and smaller container ships between 2,000 and 10,000 TEU. These vessels are the backbone of global trade, are not dependent upon any one trade or country, and are extremely flexible. This stands in contrast to the very big ships that tend to dominate the headlines in the media, but which are more restricted in where they can go due to their size, requiring specialized port infrastructure and deep water, not to mention huge cargo volumes to fill them. This keeps the very big ships largely confined to the mainline trades between China and the U.S. or Northern Europe, which, as I'll get to in a minute, have been disrupted in recent quarters.

The flexibility of our fleet offers is a key point that we reiterate because it matters a great deal, particularly in this current environment of heightened uncertainty and shifting trade patterns. Our fleet plays an increasingly vital role as trade routes and supply chains have become fragmented by a wide variety of factors that we'll discuss on the coming slides. On slide 12, we break down the impacts we've seen from the ongoing disruption in the Red Sea, prior to which approximately 20% of global containerized trade volumes transited that bottleneck. Since then, about 10% of effective capacity has been absorbed as ships have been forced to reroute around the Cape of Good Hope, which in turn has driven up charter rates.

While it is difficult to predict how long these particular conditions will last, we, and the industry more broadly, are looking to see a sustained period of safety and stability before transiting goods through there again, as seafarer safety is key. If and when the Red Sea does reopen for safe transit, there would be a period of costly and complex rerouting and reshaping of networks for the liner companies. This suggests that there will need to be a reasonably high industry-wide conviction of a long-term normalization of conditions before we would expect to see large-scale rerouting via the Red Sea and Suez. It is certainly something to keep an eye on. On slide 13, we discuss tariffs and how 2019, under the first Trump administration, could be instructive in how we might expect things to continue to play out moving forward.

Following the 2019 tariffs, there was reduced trade between the U.S. and China, which had a negative impact on larger container ships used for those mainland trades, while, as for mid-sized and smaller container ships, there was, perhaps counterintuitively, an uplift in demand following the tariffs as trade routes shifted and more emphasis was placed on intra-Asian trades where mid-sized and smaller ships predominate. Regional trade volumes increased, the supply chain diversified, and mid-sized and smaller container ships were the beneficiaries. Put bluntly, if you're providing capacity to the containerized supply chain, as we are, increased disruption, complexity, and inefficiency in the supply chain tends to be a good thing and supportive of earnings. Slide 14 is where we discuss the latest developments, or non-developments if you prefer, on the regulatory front.

Namely, USTR fees and the reciprocal China port fees caused quite a lot of agitation, vessel redeployments, and uncertainty as the industry sorted out how to adjust. In the case of USTR, that played out with several months of forward notice, as the regulations which were announced in February modified in April and implemented in October. Meanwhile, in the China port fee situation, several months' worth of disruption and strategizing were forced into a memorable few days in October, with measures announced on a Friday and implemented the following Tuesday. Even with both measures now apparently suspended after only negligible periods of enforcement, the industry was given yet another sharp reminder of the value of maintaining flexibility. Meanwhile, the long-anticipated net-zero framework at the IMO, which had been due to be adopted in October, was deferred at the 11th hour by one year.

This deferral will likely extend the lives of older ships and lift the commercial relevance and earnings for conventionally fueled ships such as those in the GSL fleet. Our view has long been that in a period of pronounced regulatory uncertainty, there are clear advantages to investing in mid-life tonnage and being smart followers when it comes to the adoption of new fuels and propulsion technologies. We cover supply-side dynamics and scrapping trends on slide 15. As ships continue to transit around the Cape of Good Hope and supply chains remain both fragmented and subject to continuous reshuffling, idle capacity and scrapping levels have remained close to zero.

In that context, scarcity value is real, and the liners continue to show an interest and, in fact, a need to charter in scarce tonnage in an uncertain freight environment, as the risk of being short on capacity and the value of network optionality override concerns about fleet optimization and the maximization of efficiency. Slide 16 shows the order book. Here, we want to highlight that although the overall order book is meaningful and has grown over the past few years, the segments in which GSL focused are seeing far less growth. For ships over 10,000 TEU, a segment upon which GSL does not focus or participate, the order booked fleet ratio stands at 54%.

However, this stands in sharp contrast to the 32% ratio for all container ships and even more so for the 15% order book fleet ratio for the segments GSL does participate in, which are those between 2,000 and 10,000 TEU. Also, with the current order book, if we were to assume that all vessels over 25 years old were scrapped through 2029, which is how long it would take to deliver the current order book, the sub-10,000 TEU fleet would actually shrink by over 5% in that time frame. While capacity remains tight, we will continue to lock in charter coverage at attractive rates. However, should the market normalize in the coming years, we would expect to see scrapping activity pick up sharply, meaningfully offsetting the impact of new vessels coming into the market in our size segments.

Slide 17 shows the charter market, against which I would remind you that our break-even rate, including operating costs and debt service, is just over $9,500 per vessel per day. With the current market conditions, we have been locking in as much charter coverage as possible and now have forward visibility on $1.92 billion of contracted revenues over 2.5 years of coverage. Who knows how macro, geopolitical, and industry dynamics will develop going forward, but we're pleased to have built a stable platform in otherwise choppy seas. On that note, I will turn the call back to George on slide 18.

Georgios Youroukos, Executive Chairman, Global Ship Lease: Thank you, Tom. To summarize, our cash flows are strong, and we continue to build our charter backlog with almost $2 billion of cover over two and a half years, 2025 fully contracted, marginal open days in 2026, and a significant slice of 2027 already covered. Even as there is a sigh of relief on the current suspension of USTR and China port fees in some quarters for the deferral of the IMO net-zero framework, uncertainty remains pronounced. We're maximizing optionality to manage risks and capitalize on opportunities. Less efficient and more fragmented supply chains are increasing demand for our fleet of flexible mid-sized and smaller container ships. We have strengthened our balance sheet and continue to amortize debt to build equity value and resilience through delivering.

We have lowered our financial leverage, and our average break-even rate stands at just above $9,500 per day per vessel, and our credit ratings are in great shape. As the existing cash flows and cash cows begin to age out, we are focused on the disciplined and opportunistic renewal of our fleet to ensure that we have the right value-generating assets going forward. We are proud of returning capital to shareholders through our dividend, which, following the increase announced today, stands at an annualized rate of $2.50 per common share, 67% above where it was just 18 months ago. With that, we would be very pleased to take your questions.

Tina, Conference Operator: As a reminder, to ask a question, simply press star one on your telephone keypad. Again, that is star one to ask a question. Our first question comes from the line of Liam Burke with B. Riley Securities. Please go ahead.

Liam Burke, Analyst, B. Riley Securities: Thank you. Hi, George. Tom, Tassos, how are you today?

Thomas Lister, CEO, Global Ship Lease: We're well, thanks, Liam. How are you?

Liam Burke, Analyst, B. Riley Securities: Just fine, thank you. It looks like freight rates have sort of bounced off the bottom from third quarter and are inching up. Are you still seeing a healthy gap between freight rates and charter rates here?

Thomas Lister, CEO, Global Ship Lease: Hi, Liam. Short answer, yes. Charter rates continue to move sideways at very healthy levels. Historically, I would say really quite high and attractive levels. Despite the near-term volatility, both up and down in the freight markets, the charter markets are staying steady.

Liam Burke, Analyst, B. Riley Securities: Great. Is there any appetite, or how are you balancing rates versus duration when you're looking at either renewals or forward charters?

Thomas Lister, CEO, Global Ship Lease: Look, we're conscious that these are strange and uncertain times. We continue to be focused on a sort of risk-averse basis on mid-term and longer charters, and we're happy to take attractive economic rates on as long charters really as we're able to go at the moment. For different sizes, that means probably sub-5,000 TEU, you're looking at a couple of years that you can fix for. From, say, 6 or 6.5 thousand TEU up, you're looking at maybe three and possibly even four years in some instances. That would be our preference to lean into.

Liam Burke, Analyst, B. Riley Securities: Great. Thank you, Tom. Thank you, George.

Thomas Lister, CEO, Global Ship Lease: Our pleasure.

Tina, Conference Operator: Again, to ask a question, simply press star one. Our next question comes from the line of Omar Nokta.

Omar Nokta, Analyst: Thank you. Hi, George. Tom, Tassos, thanks for the update. Obviously, things are coming together quite nicely. Pretty solid quarter. You added a good amount of backlog despite all the uncertainty and the strange times that you were just referencing, Tom. Just kind of thinking about the fact that you were able to add so much backlog in the third quarter, $380 million, nearly half of what you did for or sorry, nearly half equal to what you did in the first half. Just wanted to get a sense from you, is that on the back of a very sort of maybe active, fast-paced market on the part of charters, or is it something unique to GSL that you were able to accomplish, maybe not necessarily representative of the broader market dynamics?

Thomas Lister, CEO, Global Ship Lease: I mean, obviously, we'd take every opportunity to talk up our own book, Omar, but I would say that it's more representative of the market. If you look back on 2025 year to date, the first quarter was very active. The second quarter was significantly disrupted by liberation days. I would say a lot of chartering activity was effectively put on hold during the second quarter, and that came into the third quarter. I think it's probably best to look back on the nine months as a whole as opposed to trying to infer too much from individual quarters. What I would say is that in the face of an uncertain environment, and it just seems to get more uncertain every day, the lines see capacity as optionality, particularly mid-sized and smaller container ships that can be moved around pretty much any trader.

We see, as a result, sustained demand for such tonnage, which is what explains the fact that charter rates in the broader market, as well as within our fixtures, remain at very attractive levels.

Omar Nokta, Analyst: Yeah. Yeah. Thanks, Tom. Especially, it looks like for those older vessels, we noticed in your fleet list, several of those ships that are in that 2000, 2001 built age range have now been extended for, say, three years. Those ships are going to be, call it, close to 29, maybe 30 years when those ships roll off charter. You think, obviously, it's going to be a different market perhaps in three years' time, but as you think about what that market looks like, assuming it's still kind of the same, do you think those ships can continue to trade at 29, 30 years old, or is there an age limit, you think, for those ships?

Georgios Youroukos, Executive Chairman, Global Ship Lease: Yep. If I may take this, I will tell you. If the market was exactly the same as it was today, these ships would continue to trade. There is one big differentiation between containers and the other types of ships. There is no extra insurance on the cargo depending on the age of the ship. And why is that? Because container ships have the highest and best record of safety versus other types of ships. I mean, ships sinking or breaking into two, etc. The construction of the containers, because of the way they are loaded and discharged in a direct way, they have to slide the containers into the cargo hold from the gantry crane. They are super heavy in lightweight, hence very strong, very well made.

The fact that the cargo does not come into contact with the cargo hold, meaning it's just boxes that you stack up in, so you're not putting anything like oil that goes and touches the side of the ship, the cargo hold or bulk cargo, which again gets in contact with the surface of the cargo hold and hence deteriorates over time, make container ships very strong and hence there is no extra insurance, which means that the ships can trade easily past the 28 or 29 years if the market is there.

Thomas Lister, CEO, Global Ship Lease: Omar, just to sort of add more texture to that, I think the U.S. Jones Act vessels that trade in some instances into the sort of late 30s and occasionally into their 40s are evidence of the fact that technical obsolescence in the container ship sector, if you put sort of fuel and propulsion issues to one side for a moment, is not an issue. That dovetails with what George was just saying. Long story short, if there is economic need, the vessels will "live longer.

Omar Nokta, Analyst: Okay. Yeah. Thanks, Tom. Thanks, George. That's very helpful. Maybe just one final one. Tom, you were talking about the Red Sea, and there's obviously perhaps maybe a growing view that we'll start to see transits pick up again in the near future now that there's a peace deal in Gaza. Still, obviously, a lot of uncertainty there. Just wanted to get a sense from you. Are you having discussions with your charters at the moment on how that will look? How does that decision come about? Is that going to be an agreement that you make, or is it going to be them who force it down? How do you kind of think about the two sides of the ship?

Thomas Lister, CEO, Global Ship Lease: Yeah. First of all, no. It's not something which is currently under discussion. Secondly, it's a sort of multilateral decision that has to be taken because also beyond the charterers and the owners, there are also the insurers, not only of the vessels themselves, but of the cargo. It's a fairly complex web of folk that have to get comfortable with the idea of transiting. The biggest concern is obviously that of seafarer safety. I would say if we go back to looking at the tonnage that was diverted away from the Red Sea and Suez and around the Cape of Good Hope, it's predominantly the bigger ships, the larger ships, because it's those ships that are typically deployed on the Asia to Europe legs.

I would say that the opening or not of the Red Sea is something that will have a proportionally greater impact on bigger ships and less of an impact, I mean, which is not to say no impact for sure, but less of an impact on mid-sized and smaller ships, which were not frequent transitors of the Red Sea and Suez in any case, even when it was "a normal environment" up until the end of 2023. We will have to see, but I think the dynamics remain comparatively supportive.

Omar Nokta, Analyst: Okay. Great. Thank you, Tom. Thanks, George. I'll pass it back.

Thomas Lister, CEO, Global Ship Lease: Our pleasure.

Tina, Conference Operator: Again, to ask a question, simply press star one on your telephone keypad. With no further questions in queue, I will now hand the call back over to Thomas Lister for closing remarks.

Thomas Lister, CEO, Global Ship Lease: Thank you all very much indeed for joining our three-queue call, and we look forward to reconnecting in the new year on the back of our four-queue earnings. Many thanks.

Tina, Conference Operator: This does conclude today's conference call. You may now disconnect.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.