STEALTHGAS, a ship-owning company serving the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sector of the international shipping industry, announced its unaudited financial and operating results for the second quarter and six months ended June 30, 2022.
OPERATIONAL AND FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS1
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1 EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted EPS are non-GAAP measures. Refer to the reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable financial measure in accordance with GAAP set forth later in this release.
Second Quarter 2022 Results:
Six Months 2022 Results:
Fleet Update Since Previous Announcement
The Company announced the conclusion of the following chartering arrangements:
With these charters, the Company has total contracted revenues of approximately $72 million.
For the remainder of the year 2022, the Company has about 62% of fleet days secured under period contracts.
In addition, the following chartering arrangements were concluded on the joint venture vessels:
In addition, with the redelivery of the Eco Chios and the Gas Exelero from their bareboat charterers during Q2 22’ the Company no longer has any other bareboat charter arrangements.
Subsequent Events
The Company also announced the profitable sale from the joint venture of the Eco Nebula to a third party. The delivery of the vessel was concluded in August 2022 and will impact the results of Q3 22’. The Company expects that the net proceeds from the sale after debt repayment, along with any trading profits and remaining capital will subsequently be distributed to the partners.
In July 2022, the Company entered into an agreement with a related party for the acquisition of two 40,000cbm newbuilding Medium Gas Carriers for a capital expenditure of circa $117 million. The vessels are under construction in Korea and are expected to be delivered in Q3 23’ and Q4 23’ respectively. The Company expects to finance the acquisition of these two vessels from its existing cash and the arrangement of a new bank facility subject to customary closings.
Board Chairman Michael Jolliffe Commented
Following the strategic decision to become a pure player in the broader LPG market, this was the second quarter that the StealthGas fleet consisted of only LPG carriers of various sizes. I am very pleased with the results we announced today, as it has been the most profitable six months for our company for over a decade. During the second quarter there was robust demand for our LPG vessels. All vessel sizes in our fleet showed improving results and particularly the handysize vessels boosted our bottom line. The EPS for the six months was $0.52 while our stock currently trades around $3.00. We will continue our chartering strategy placing our vessels on period charters, and while the summer months are usually quieter in terms of activity and we have seen more spot activity we expect that we will find increasing opportunities in the coming months for period charters.
While we are optimistic for the LPG shipping market, we recognise that we continue to operate in a challenging geopolitical environment where issues are being perpetuated. As of late inflationary pressures have been a concern of ours, and we have managed to contain cost pressures for the time being. We have started seeing the impact from interest rises although these have been somewhat moderated from the interest rate hedges we have entered and the historically low debt levels we maintain at this point. As we have noted in the past we maintain a healthy capital structure that allows for investments and moderate fleet renewal for example with the two newbulding medium gas carriers that we expect to take delivery of next year. It is important that we maintain a modern high quality fleet that allows us to offer our services with reliability and safety to our customers.
