Earnings call transcript: Seanergy Maritime Q4 2024 shows record net income

Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp. (SHIP) reported its Q4 2024 earnings, highlighting a significant increase in net income and revenue. The company’s financial performance was bolstered by strategic fleet expansion and a favorable market environment. Currently trading at $6.98, the stock remains significantly below its 52-week high of $13.19, despite impressive financial metrics. According to InvestingPro analysis, the company appears undervalued based on its comprehensive Fair Value model.

Key Takeaways

• Seanergy Maritime’s net income surged to $43.5 million for the full year 2024, a substantial increase from $2.3 million in 2023.
• The company expanded its fleet, acquiring two new vessels, enhancing its operational capacity.
• The Capesize market saw a notable increase in average rates, contributing to the company’s improved performance.
• Seanergy secured 22% of its 2025 operating days at favorable rates, indicating a strong forward-looking position.

Company Performance

Seanergy Maritime demonstrated robust performance in 2024, with a focus on expanding its fleet and capitalizing on favorable market conditions. The company’s pure-play Capesize strategy allowed it to outperform the Baltic Capesize Index by 27.11%, underscoring its competitive edge. The expansion to 21 vessels increased the total fleet capacity to 3.8 million deadweight tons, positioning the company to capitalize on growing demand.

Financial Highlights

• Full Year 2024 Net Revenue: $167.5 million, a 50% increase year-over-year.
• Q4 2024 Net Revenue: $41.7 million.
• Net Income: $43.5 million, up from $2.3 million in 2023.
• Earnings Per Share: $2.12, compared to $0.12 in 2023.
• Adjusted EBITDA: $98.4 million.
• Cash Position: $34.9 million.
• Return on Equity (ROE): 17%.

Outlook & Guidance

Looking ahead, Seanergy Maritime anticipates an EBITDA range of $78-100 million for 2025, with expectations of a stronger market in the latter half of the year. The company projects a Capesize fleet growth of 1.5% for 2025-2026, reflecting a cautious yet optimistic outlook. The anticipated Q1 2025 Time Charter Equivalent is set at $13,400 per day. InvestingPro data reveals strong analyst confidence, with sales growth expected this year and a consensus recommendation indicating a bullish stance. The company’s financial health score is rated as "GOOD" by InvestingPro’s comprehensive analysis framework.

Executive Commentary

CEO Stamatis Santannis highlighted the company’s record performance, stating, "2024 was a record year for Seanergy with net income reaching $43,500,000." He emphasized the strong demand for raw materials, saying, "Demand for raw materials like iron ore, coal, and bauxite has been very, very strong." Santannis also noted the company’s strategic positioning, mentioning, "We have zero Chinese built ships with exception of one."

Risks and Challenges

• Market Volatility: Fluctuations in the Capesize market could impact future earnings.
• Geopolitical Tensions: Potential trade wars or geopolitical issues could affect global shipping routes and demand.
• Economic Slowdown: A downturn in global economic activity could reduce demand for shipping services.
• Fleet Maintenance Costs: As the fleet expands, managing operating expenses remains crucial.
• Regulatory Changes: New environmental regulations could impose additional costs on operations.

Seanergy Maritime’s Q4 2024 earnings call underscores a year of significant growth and strategic positioning within the maritime industry. With a strong financial foundation, impressive gross profit margins of 68.52%, and a favorable market outlook, the company is well-positioned to navigate future challenges and opportunities. For comprehensive analysis and detailed valuation metrics, explore Seanergy Maritime’s full Pro Research Report, available exclusively on InvestingPro, along with reports on 1,400+ other US stocks.

Full transcript - Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp (SHIP) Q4 2024:

Conference Call Operator: Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Synergy Maritime Holdings Corp. Conference Call on the Fourth Quarter and Year Ended 12/31/2024 Financial Results. We have with us Mr. Stamatis Santannis, Chairman and CEO and Mr.

Savrovs Githakis, Chief Financial Officer of Synergy Maritime Holding Corp. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. Please be advised that this conference call is being recorded today, Thursday, March 2025. The archived webcast of the conference call will soon be made available on the Synergy website, www.synergymaritime.com. To access today’s presentation and listen to the archived audio file, visit the Synergy website following the Webcast and Presentations section under the Investor Relations page.

Please now turn to Slide two of the presentation. Many of the remarks today contain forward looking statements based on current expectations. Actual results may differ materially from the results projected from those forward looking statements. Additional information concerning factors that can cause the actual results to differ materially from those in the forward looking statements is contained in the fourth quarter and year ended 12/31/2024, earnings release, which is available on the Synergy website, again, www.synergymaritime.com. I would now like to turn the conference over to one of your speakers today, the Chairman and CEO of the company, Mr.

Stamatis Santanes. Please go ahead, sir.

Stamatis Santannis, Chairman and CEO, Synergy Maritime Holdings Corp.: Thank you, operator, and welcome, everyone. Today, we’re pleased to present our financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2024 along with key corporate updates. We will discuss our record profitability, strategic fleet expansion and capital return initiatives as well as our outlook on the Capesize market and the factors positioning Synergy for the long term success. We are pleased to report another strong and profitable quarter, marking our fourth consecutive year of profitability. Synergy’s consistent financial performance underscores the strength of our Capesize focused strategy.

Our effective hedging approach once again allowed us to outperform the Baltic Capesize Index BCI and our diversified drybulk peers, many of whom remain exposed to weaker performance of smaller vessel classes. 2024 was a record year for Synergy with net income reaching $43,500,000 compared to just $2,300,000 in 2023. It is important to note that our Q4 and full year results include one off legal expenses related to our AGM and litigation, which had temporary impact to our bottom line. Stavros will provide further details on this later in the call. Our strategic focus remains on balancing capital returns, fleet growth and financial discipline ensuring maximum shareholder value as we continue to operate in a fundamentally strong CapExize market.

Reflecting on our solid Q4 performance, we have declared a cash quarterly dividend of $0.1 per share, bringing our total twenty twenty four dividends to $0.76 per share or $15,600,000 in total distributions. Additionally, we repurchased 226,000 shares at an average price of $9.44 during Q4, reinforcing our commitment to shareholder value. As part of our capital allocation strategy, we continuously assess the balance between dividends and buybacks. And given the recent pressure on drybulk equities, we acted decisively to maximize value for our shareholders. On the fleet expansion front, we recently took delivery of two high quality Japanese built vessels, the May Ship and the Blue Ship.

With this addition, our total fleet has grown to 21 vessels, representing a cunning capacity of 3,800,000 deadweight tons, pure play Capesize and Newcastle Maxes. In 2024 and early twenty twenty five, we have invested $138,000,000 in four premium vessels, further strengthening our fleet’s cash flow generation potential. Given the positive Capesize fundamentals, we firmly believe that acquiring high quality vessels at attractive valuations enhances our ability to deliver strong returns throughout the cycle. Since the beginning of 2024, we have successfully completed $174,000,000 in financing center refinancings, reinforcing our ability to support fleet expansion while maintaining financial flexibility. Stavros will provide additional insights into these transactions, but I would like to highlight that we ended the year with a fleet loan to value of 45% while expanding our fleet and delivering significant capital returns to our shareholders.

The Capesize market remains well positioned to continue strength underpinned by robust demand for iron ore bauxite and coal with trade volumes increasing in 2024, limited fleet expansion with net Capesize fleet growth at just 1.7% in 2024 and projected decline further to 1.4% in 2025. ’20 ’20 ’4 and 2025 represent the lowest Capesize delivery years since 02/2003, reinforcing a favorable supplydemand balance. Despite short term volatility, we expect the market setup for 2025 and beyond to remain highly supportive. During Q4 twenty twenty four, we generated revenues of $41,700,000 daily TCE times at the equivalent rate of $23,200 a day, net income of $6,600,000 Slide three, prioritizing shareholder returns. Turning to Slide three, our clear and disciplined capital return strategy continues to maximize value for shareholders through consistent dividends and strategic buybacks.

Over the past three years, we have distributed more than $14,000,000 in dividends equating to $2.21 per share. When including share repurchases and convertible note buybacks, our total capital returns amount to $87,000,000 representing approximately 60% of our current equity market capitalization. This reflects our strong commitment to shareholder value, while at the same time allowing us to strategically expand our fleet in a capital efficient manner. Our ability to simultaneously grow the fleet and reward shareholders with significant capital returns underscore Synergy’s financial strength and confidence in the Capesize market’s long term fundamentals. As the market remains strong in the years ahead, we remain committed to maintaining a balanced approach to growth and shareholder distributions.

Slide four, commercial highlights and fleet updates. Moving to Slide four, Synergy once again delivered industry leading time charter equivalent performance in both Q4 and full year 2024. Our Q4 daily TCE was $23,200 while the full year TCE reached $25,100 per day, outperforming the Baltic Capesize Index by 2711% respectively. This outperformance validates our strategic focus on the CapEx segment setting us apart from other diversified drybulk peers who remain exposed to smaller vessel classes with weaker returns. Even amid the weaker Q4 market, we maximized earnings by strategically locking in FFA based fixed rates for a portion of our fleet days ensuring greater revenue stability and enhanced profitability.

Looking ahead to 2025, we have already secured 22% of our operating days at an average gross rate exceeding $22,100 a day. For Q1 twenty twenty five, we expect an indicative time charter equivalent of approximately 13,400 per day. Our focus remains on strategically fixing vessels at profitable rates, ensuring cash flow visibility and maximizing shareholder returns. Our fleet expansion continued in Q4 twenty twenty four, reinforcing our position as a leading pure play Capesize operator. In October 2024, we took delivery of the twenty twelve built Kaizenship, completing another year of targeted fleet expansion.

Combined investment in ICON Ship delivered June 2024 and Kaizen Ship totaled $69,300,000 representing an excellent value relative to their estimated market prices. Both vessels are on index linked charters with a premium over the BCI, providing strong cash flow visibility into 2025 and beyond. In addition, we exercised a highly attractive purchase option for the 2011 built Newcastle Max, the Titan Ship at $20,250,000 At year end 2024, Titan Ship’s market value exceeded $35,000,000 highlighting our ability to secure high quality assets at compelling prices. The vessel operates on an index linked charter with a fixed floor and significant profit sharing upside ensuring strong earnings potential. Recent additions to our fleet, two additional Japanese build vessels acquired since last quarterly update, the MV May Ship, a twenty thirteen built Newcastle Max and the MV Blues Ship, a twenty eleven built Capesize.

Total investment of $69,000,000 further expanding our high quality efficient fleet. The Blueship is expected to enter an index linked time charter, while the May ship will operate under a structured fixed floor time charter with profit sharing similar to the Titan ships charter. With 3,800,000 deadweight tons of pure play 21 Capesizes and Newcastle Maxes now in operation, Synergy has achieved significant fleet scale, but we remain committed to disciplined growth. We continue to evaluate strategic fleet opportunities, leveraging our deep industry relationships and access to high quality assets to enhance shareholder value. I will now pass the call to Stavros, who will fill you in on our financial information for the quarter and the full year, as well as discussing our balance sheet and debt refinancings.

Stavros, please go ahead. Thank you, Samati, and welcome to everyone joining us for today’s early call. Let’s begin with Slide five, where we’ll review the key highlights of our financial performance for the fourth quarter and the full year ending 12/31/2024. Our net revenue for the quarter was $41,700,000 based on a daily time charter equivalent of about $23,200 At the same time, our adjusted EBITDA and net income reached $20,400,000 and $6,600,000 respectively. Despite the softening Capesize market, we delivered a solid performance underscoring our resilience and ability to navigate market fluctuations effectively.

On a full year basis, we achieved record profitability reflecting both the Capesize market and the successful execution of our strategy. Our net revenue surged to $167,500,000 up 50% year over year with our time charter equivalent ascending to approximately $25,100 Adjusted EBITDA grew to $98,400,000 and our net income rose significantly to $43,500,000 compared to $53,000,000 and $2,300,000 respectively in 2023. Earnings per share reached $2.12 posting an impressive increase from $0.12 last year. Moving on to our balance sheet, our cash position strengthened further in 2024, closing the year at $34,900,000 equivalent approximately $1,800,000 per vessel. This strong cash position was achieved despite in turning $20,500,000 to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks.

More importantly, we maintained leverage at moderate levels despite the fleet expansion that took place during the year, keeping the total debt at $261,500,000 dollars for a book value debt to capital ratio of less than 50% once again. This financial strength provides valuable flexibility, particularly in the current environment with a temporary softening of the Capesas market, ensuring we can effectively manage liquidity and see strategic opportunities. Our total assets reached $545,800,000 while our stockholder equity stood at $262,200,000 dollars Notably, we delivered a robust ROE of 17% for the full year, demonstrating our ability to drive shareholders value through operational efficiency and strategic capital allocation. Moving on to Slide six, we can see that we once again delivered robust core profitability with our adjusted EBITDA nearly doubling year over year. As Thomas highlighted earlier, our time charter equivalent outperformed the BCI on both a quarterly and annual basis.

Our adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 57.6% this year, reflecting our ongoing efforts on improving operational efficiency and cost management. This improvement underscores our commitment to maintaining strong financial health and delivering value to our stakeholders even in a challenging market environment. In fact, based on the current FFA rates, we anticipate our EBITDA to reach close to $80,000,000 for the full year 2025. Additionally, our operating cash flow margin ratio improved significantly compared to last year, reaching 44% indicating our ongoing efforts to enhance our ability to generate cash from our coal operations. On the expense side, we successfully maintained daily OpEx per vessel at $7,000 effectively at the same level with our previous year despite the inflationary pressure and the aging factor of our vessels.

In addition, it’s important to note that this record profitability was achieved despite incurring significant one off expenses in 2024, having to do with our proxy fight and related litigation. This cost totaled $4,100,000 for the year with about 6% of these expenses impacting the G and A and net income of the fourth quarter. Turning to Slide seven, we will discuss our debt optimization initiatives. From the start of twenty twenty four up to date, we successfully completed $174,400,000 in financing and refinancing transaction. Despite these financings, we have managed to maintain our leverage at moderate levels with a debt per vessel currently standing at $13,800,000 slightly higher than the average scrap value of vessels.

Regarding cash interest expenses, we’ve used daily cash interest expense approximately $2,700 per vessel. Through our financing and refinancing transactions, we successfully lowered our weighted average margin in 2024 and expect this to decrease further through our recent agreements. Should this margin tightening get combined with rate cuts from the Fed, it would lead to significant reduction of our daily interest expense. Now before we move on, let me highlight some details on our latest transactions. In February, we finalized another sustainability loan to refinance existing debt of wall ship and ownership under significantly improved terms and partially finance the acquisition of our latest Newcastlemax, the Mail Ship.

The total amount of the transaction is $53,600,000 with a term of five years and an interest rate of 2.05% plus term SFR per annum, 55 basis points lower than the rate of the refinanced agreement. This is a sustainability linked loan, as I said before. So the rate can be further reduced based on the achievement of certain emission reduction targets. Through this refinancing, we minimize the equity outlay for the acquisition of the Maisyp safeguarding our liquidity position in a seasonally weak market. Additionally, we recently signed a term sheet with a beautiful Chinese lessor for two sale and leaseback agreements totaling approximately $34,500,000 which remains currently subject to documentation.

These agreements will be utilized to refinance the only balloon payments pending this year, shaping a clear path for 2025. They are also expected to add further liquidity to the company and will bear significantly improved interest rate compared to the existing indebtedness of the two ships. Now moving to Slide eight, I would like to highlight once again our resilient operating leverage and our strategic positioning to capitalize on any upward movement in the Capesas market. At the same time, our risk management strategy is in place to safeguard our revenue and cash flows against market volatility. As Thomas mentioned earlier, we have already hit twenty two percent of our days for the year, effectively leveraging freight market spikes.

As you can see in the graph, if CapEx size rates in 2025 align with the current FFA curve, we anticipate our EBITDA for 2025 to be approximately $78,000,000 In a more favorable scenario, EBITDA could exceed $100,000,000 To summarize, we are well prepared to navigate market fluctuations and seize opportunities, ultimately driving sustainable growth and enhancing shareholder value. That concludes my view of our financial results and updates. I will now pass the call back to Samati, who will provide insights into the Capesize market and industry fundamentals. Samati? Thank you, Savro.

Slide nine. Overall, 2024 was a strong year for the Capesize market with the BCI averaging $22,400 a day, a significant increase from the $16,600 a day in 2023. The combination of historically low fleet growth and rising tonne mile demand from Atlantic Basin cargoes continues to support a positive long term trajectory. While short term volatility remains driven by factors such as weather disruptions, inventory restocking cycles and seasonality, we believe that structural fundamentals remain strong, supporting sustained vessel earnings in the years ahead. In Q4 twenty twenty four, the Capesize market experienced a correction with a BCI averaging $18,300 a day compared to $24,900 in Q3 and twenty eight thousand one hundred dollars in Q4 twenty twenty three.

This decline was mainly due to reduced Brazilian iron ore exports, lower Capesize coal cargoes from Eastern Australia, weaker Panamax rates, which increased downward pressure on Capesize vessels as similar ships absorb part of the coal trade. For the full year, Capesize tonne mile demand grew by approximately 4% fueled by higher seaborne iron ore shipments as well in Brazil achieved its highest production since 2019. China’s bauxite imports reached 159,000,000 tons, up 18,000,000 tons from 2023 with over three quarters transported on Capesize vessels. Fleet growth remained limited at around 2%, insufficient to much demand growth resulting in a tighter market for most of the year. Regarding 2025 market outlook, looking ahead, Capesize demand is expected to be increasingly driven by rising Atlantic to Asia cargo flows, leading to longer voyage distances and higher tonne mile requirements.

West African bauxite exports expected to increase by about 20,000,000 tons in 2025, supported by rising global aluminum demand and improved export logistics. Iron ore trade growth. Brazil’s Vale exports are expected to remain very strong. And in addition, we expect to see the Simandou mining project in West Africa set to finally commence seaborne iron ore shipments in late twenty twenty five. Coal demand.

China’s coal imports surged 14.4% in 2024 as domestic production struggled to meet demand. While short term fluctuations may occur due to inventory cycles, long term demand remains solid, particularly for industrial and energy needs. These factors set the stage for a potential demand upturn in the second half of twenty twenty five, supporting a stronger market environment and higher Capesize shutter rates in the coming years. Slide 10. On the supply side, vessel additions remain highly constrained with effective Capesize fleet growth projected at just 1.5% in both 2025 and 2026.

The current oil book is at the lowest levels in twenty years and upcoming environmental regulations are set to further restrict new vessel deliveries. Factoring in the extensive drydock schedule in 2025 of the global fleet, net fleet growth could drop to as low as 1% reinforcing a tight supply environment. Additional port congestion remains at historically low levels meaning any potential disruptions could only significantly impact vessel availability and push up charter rates. Looking at newbuilding activity, there have been zero new orders placed this year and given the pricing gap between newbuilds and secondhand ships, we do not expect this trend to change in the near future. With only 40 Capesize vessels scheduled for delivery in 2025, the combined deliveries for 2024 and 2025 represent the lowest level since 02/2003, a highly favorable dynamic for supply of the vessels.

Given the tight supply backdrop, environmental regulations continue to reinforce the need for fleet replacement while reducing vessel speeds and limiting overall capacity growth. This structural slowdown in fleet expansion and operational efficiency supports a strong long term outlook for the Capesize fundamentals. Conclusion, Synergy’s pure play Capesize strategy is now a proven model positioning us to capitalize on long term industry tailwinds with three clear objectives. Capital returns, we remain committed to maximizing shareholder value through dividends and share buybacks. Fleet growth, we focus on strategic high return fleet expansion ensuring sustainable value creation.

Financial strength, we continue to balance growth with financial discipline, maintaining a flexible balance sheet that allows us to navigate market volatility while enhancing returns. Synergy is successfully delivering on these priorities as reflected in our strong financial performance and share price growth. With a favorable Capesize market outlook and a disciplined strategy, we remain well positioned to drive sustained value for our shareholders. On this note, I would like to turn the call back to the operator and answer any questions you may have. Operator, please take the call.

Conference Call Operator: Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Liam Burke from B. Riley Financial. Please go ahead.

Liam Burke, Analyst, B. Riley Financial: Thank you. Hi, Samadhi. How are you doing, Stavros?

Stamatis Santannis, Chairman and CEO, Synergy Maritime Holdings Corp.: Hi. Good morning, Liam. Nice to hear from you.

Liam Burke, Analyst, B. Riley Financial: Thank you. You too. Samadhi, we are all familiar with the supply demand dynamics long term of the Capesize fleet, but rates were understandably very low in the first quarter for a number of reasons, including seasonality. But they took a fairly precipitous bounce into the end of the quarter and into the second quarter. Can you give us a sense as to what’s created this pretty steep short term rebound?

Stamatis Santannis, Chairman and CEO, Synergy Maritime Holdings Corp.: That’s a great question, Liam. The short answer to that is, it is not the Capesize segment’s fault. It is actually the reason why we have seen very limited congestion on the Kamsarmax. So we have assessed that the previous, let’s say, six months from September onwards, congestion of the Kamsarmax went down to almost zero. I will discuss for a few seconds about the Kamsarmax to let you know what I mean.

Kamsarmax at any given point, there were 100 to 200 ships waiting at Parana River in South America. There were 100 to 200 ships waiting to pass the Panama Canal due to the previous periods of the drought. And you had another 201 to 200 Kamsarmaxes in the Black Sea for the Grain Corridor. Nothing of that exists today. Since the second half of last year, all of these approximately 600 ships are out and about looking for cargos and the Kamsarmax market collapsed down to $5,000 So we had this paradox back in September, October where you had the Capesize market at $25,000 and the Kamsarmax market at 5,000.

So unavoidably, the charter started to split the cargoes and a lot of Kamsarmax ships started to pick up coal cargoes from the Capesizing, cannibalizing the Capesize sector. So that’s the main driver. Low congestion of the counter markets is what led to this sharp decline in the Capesize rates as well. Because since the beginning of the year, the volumes are super high. You had the closure of the Red Sea, which also has helped the market.

And at the same time, you had a very low speed of the fleet. We have the lowest fleet speed on The Capes over the last five years. All these factors combined and of course the supply of ships is very limited. All of these factors combined would have implied a market of $25,000 or $30,000 a day, but that didn’t happen because unfortunately the smaller segment cannibalized the Capesize and the new Customax. Now we have seen that starting to reverse and that’s why we have the futures at these higher rates for the remaining of the year with an average of $22,000 a day.

So that makes us feel a little bit more optimistic about the prospects of the year. But unfortunately, it was not driven by the fundamentals of the CapEx segment. It was due to the fact that we had more effective supply on the Kamsarmaxes into the market. That’s our initial assessment, internal assessment from our research department and speaking to a lot of market participants.

Liam Burke, Analyst, B. Riley Financial: That’s great. Thank you. Stavros, these are nitpicking questions, but I mean on both OpEx and SG and A, you had on the OpEx, you had delivery expenses on the new vessels and on the SG and A, you had legal related to the proxy fight. Going into next year, are those one timers behind you or do you have some excess costs coming into the early into the first quarter?

Stamatis Santannis, Chairman and CEO, Synergy Maritime Holdings Corp.: Hi, Liam. Hello. It’s from my side.

Stavros Githakis, Chief Financial Officer, Synergy Maritime Holdings Corp.: So, no, going forward, we expect OpEx to remain pretty much at the same level at around 7,000 per ship per day. And then on G and A, a good proxy would be $20.23, I mean, taking out all the expenses that we incurred for the litigation, which were around 4,000,000 for the full year, around 2,400,000.0 of which hit the bottom line of the fourth quarter. We expect this to range about 1,500,000.0 to 2,000 per vessel per day. Great.

Liam Burke, Analyst, B. Riley Financial: Thank you very much.

Stamatis Santannis, Chairman and CEO, Synergy Maritime Holdings Corp.: Thank you, William.

Conference Call Operator: Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Mark Reichman from Noble Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Mark Reichman, Analyst, Noble Capital Markets: Thank you and good morning.

Stamatis Santannis, Chairman and CEO, Synergy Maritime Holdings Corp.: Hi, good morning. The question

Mark Reichman, Analyst, Noble Capital Markets: I have is just I wanted to focus on the first quarter of twenty twenty five. So you’ve already given the operational days at 1766, which is actually a little higher than what we had in there. Does that include both the Blue Ship and the My Ship as of their February delivery dates?

Stamatis Santannis, Chairman and CEO, Synergy Maritime Holdings Corp.: Well, the answer is yes. So that includes the ships that were delivered to us earlier than what we had initially anticipated. Thanks to our good contacts with the sellers and good relationships, we managed to take delivery of these two great assets ahead of time and that is going to help us put them into work immediately and especially starting in Q2 that we see the market going up a lot compared to Q1. So that’s the short answer

Tate Sullivan, Analyst, Maxim Group: to that.

Mark Reichman, Analyst, Noble Capital Markets: So is Q1, is that 19 vessels or is it 21 vessels? I mean, will they go will they start earning money beginning in the second quarter or will they be in service in the first quarter?

Stamatis Santannis, Chairman and CEO, Synergy Maritime Holdings Corp.: Well, I think that you can count in 21 ships from Q2. For Q1, I would say an average of, I don’t know, 19.75, something like that.

Mark Reichman, Analyst, Noble Capital Markets: Okay. Got you. Now the other question is the off hire days. So I know you’d plan to do three dry dockings in the first quarter and then one dry docking each quarter after that. Could you just maybe talk a little bit about your expectations there in terms of off hire days?

Stavros Githakis, Chief Financial Officer, Synergy Maritime Holdings Corp.: Yes, you should expect around hi Mark, this is Tabros. You should expect around twenty to twenty five of hire days per vessel during the dry docking although Astamat is noted previously this is a peak dry docking year for the Capesize. The majority of the fleet was built around 02/1031. So there in some cases, we expect unforeseen delays. We expect dry docking days to move a bit forward due to the congestion, so to say, in the Chinese shipyards right now.

But on average, I would factor in twenty to twenty five of hire days for each drydocking.

Mark Reichman, Analyst, Noble Capital Markets: Okay, great. And then just lastly, just looking at the Capesize vessel rates, I mean, obviously, kind of in the low 20s, the first quarter expectations are quite low. Just looking ahead, I mean, do you expect that they might hold at these levels or increase? Or do you think some of the worries surrounding Trump’s tariffs moves might have an impact or do you just think the fundamentals of the Capesize market kind of rise above it all?

Stamatis Santannis, Chairman and CEO, Synergy Maritime Holdings Corp.: Well, that’s the billion dollar question, I guess. We are generally very optimistic because the fundamentals of the Capesizes appear to be very strong. Also contrary to most, if not all of our peers, we have zero Chinese built ships with exception of one. So we don’t anticipate to be affected by any levies for port calls in The United States. Not that we do, but we don’t expect to be affected to that.

All the tariffs and trade wars that are being discussed can be either very bad news for the global trade, not just drybouts and capes, but the global trade, but also can be excellent news once the market normalizes into new trade patterns. So we cannot at the same time, we may have some positive news about the war, wars ending, reconstructions, things like that that are fundamental for the Capesize trade. Nevertheless, Capesize demand for raw materials like iron ore, coal and bauxite has been very, very strong. So all these fluctuations about the freight rates are not driven by the demand that we find to be very strong, but from effective supply of things not so much related to Capes.

Mark Reichman, Analyst, Noble Capital Markets: Okay. Well, thank you very much. It’s very helpful.

Stamatis Santannis, Chairman and CEO, Synergy Maritime Holdings Corp.: Very welcome. Thank you.

Conference Call Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Tate Sullivan from Maxim Group. Please go ahead.

Tate Sullivan, Analyst, Maxim Group: Hi, thank you. Good day. I hope both great to see the repurchases, dividends and insider purchases. And then, Samad, some of your comments about the coal trade, I mean, any impacts from less coal demand in Russia in Europe, maybe if there’s less conflicts with Russia going forward or you’re seeing higher demand in general from Asia portfolio?

Stamatis Santannis, Chairman and CEO, Synergy Maritime Holdings Corp.: Good morning, Thais. Thank you. About coal trade, we’re generally very optimistic about coal trade altogether. President Trump has many times mentioned that coal is expected to drive a lot of the increased energy needs for data centers and all other things associated to energy in the near future. So we’re very optimistic about coal.

There is a lot of new building capacity of coal fired power plants globally, more than 100 gigawatts of new energy production driven by coal. So overall, we don’t see coal demand subsiding anytime soon, but we feel that coal will continue to rise in the near future a lot.

Conference Call Operator: And

Tate Sullivan, Analyst, Maxim Group: that’s fine. To confirm, no new build headquarters yet year to date, are there any indications of Chinese companies building or private companies exploring this or just very low activity?

Stamatis Santannis, Chairman and CEO, Synergy Maritime Holdings Corp.: Sorry, can you please repeat the question, Tate, because you’re breaking up.

Tate Sullivan, Analyst, Maxim Group: Oh, just new build activity, do you think zero orders year to date for new builds in The States?

Stamatis Santannis, Chairman and CEO, Synergy Maritime Holdings Corp.: Yes. It’s very limited. There is a lot of factors leading to that. There is uncertainty about Chinese built ships and also all the slots that could otherwise build Capesizes are pretty much taken until mid end of twenty twenty eight. So we don’t really see any immediate threat for new buildings coming into the market for many, many quarters looking forward.

Tate Sullivan, Analyst, Maxim Group: Yes. Thank you.

Stamatis Santannis, Chairman and CEO, Synergy Maritime Holdings Corp.: You’re very welcome, Tay. Thank you.

Conference Call Operator: Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Lars Ayda from Arctic Securities. Please go ahead.

Lars Ayda, Analyst, Arctic Securities: Thank you for taking my question.

Stamatis Santannis, Chairman and CEO, Synergy Maritime Holdings Corp.: Good morning. It’s a pleasure. Good afternoon.

Lars Ayda, Analyst, Arctic Securities: So I have a question regarding the market outlook. So as you all know, there’s lots of stuff going on the team of geopolitics nowadays with China committing to a GDP growth target of 5% earlier this week. And Trump, of course, what kind of developments are you monitoring the closest? And what do you think to have the most what do you expect to have the most impact moving forward in the near and the medium near term?

Stamatis Santannis, Chairman and CEO, Synergy Maritime Holdings Corp.: Well, it’s a combination of events. As I mentioned in the previous questions, we don’t really see any problems with demand and we haven’t really seen any problems with demand for the last two, three years since 2023, ’20 ’20 ’4 and 2025. It appears that demand for raw materials will continue to be very strong. Even though you had bankruptcies in China from the real estate developers and all these things, they still imported 4% to five percent more raw materials in the previous year. So demand is not an issue.

At the same time, supply appears to be quite contained. We were not expecting the big price differential between Kamsarmaxes and all this immediate drop of the Kamsarmaxes in second half of last year. And I don’t think that anybody did, given where the futures and the estimates were in June, May and June. So second half was extremely weak and that is what pulled down the Capesizes by splitting the cargos of the Capesize into Khamsin Land. It’s always about the supply.

So when you have increases of effective supply, this is what makes the market appear to be weaker. Also, if we come to a full blown trade war globally, which we give it a very small percentage as a probability, if we come to that, then we may see a temporary reduction of overall global trade. But this is not going to affect Capesize. It is going to be affecting all segments of shipping altogether in global trade. So I hope we will not come to that, and I believe that the inertia of the global increase of the GDP is unstoppable.

And I certainly hope that we will see strong demand for raw materials going forward.

Lars Ayda, Analyst, Arctic Securities: Okay. Thank you very much.

Stamatis Santannis, Chairman and CEO, Synergy Maritime Holdings Corp.: Thank you.

Conference Call Operator: Thank you. There are currently no further questions. I will hand the call back for closing remarks.

Stamatis Santannis, Chairman and CEO, Synergy Maritime Holdings Corp.: Well, thanks once again everyone for participating in our call. Looking forward to be updating you soon with further developments and we look forward to a better market for the remaining of the year. Thank you very much and have a great day, great afternoon wherever you are. Thank you.

Conference Call Operator: Thank you. This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect. Speakers please stand by.

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