Stainless Tankers ASA (STST) Earnings Call Transcript

All right. Good morning, everyone. We are here to present the second quarter 2026 earnings for Stainless Tankers ASA. I am Nicolas Tiorgalas, the CEO of the company, and I'm joined here with Irene Michel, who is the CFO of the company. 'll take you through slides and the presentation of these results. The agenda has the highlights, the chemical tanker markets and outlook, the financial review. And of course, as usual, at the end of all of that, we're going to have the Q&A session. So in terms of highlights, we are very happy to report some excellent results. The second quarter net revenue was $11.3 million, which represents a 40% quarter-over-quarter increase of -- versus the $8 million that we had in the first quarter. And the EBITDA of the company for this quarter was $6.6 million, which also represents a 90% increase over the last quarter of $3.4 million. This was driven primarily by the very strong pull rates that we had and improved fleet utilization. And when we're talking about toll rates, the TCE averaged $21,000 per day in the second quarter, is obviously much more than the $16,400 in Q1. We are, at the moment, looking at the July about 17,500, which is more a reflection of what the summer months are looking like. But following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz in March, the tanker tonnage repositioned in the Atlantic Basin to take advantage of the U.S. producing and export cargo to primarily Asia to fill the void that was created from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. And this initial spike that we saw, rates did come off a little bit and settled after that, but they did settle at higher levels compared to the beginning of the year. NAV performance was also excellent in this quarter. We had -- we were up 13.7%, taking us to a current NAV per share of $5.22, which based on the current exchange rate means about NOK 49.8 per share. And depending at what time of the day you're looking at the stock price, we are up this morning, a little bit people reading the news and also obviously seeing the discount, which has narrowed the discount to NAV to 10%, 11%, depending on what time of the day you're looking at those numbers. But -- we are extremely pleased with the performance. Obviously, it's something that we expected, a very strong quarter. And we remain, as we will discuss, optimistic, very much so for the near and medium term for the chemical market. We also declared a second quarter dividend of NOK 0.135 per share, which will be payable around 1st of September. That, again, depending at what time of the day, you're looking at somewhere between 12% and 13% of our current stock price. Here, we, of course, had to use a pace of last night's closing, which was NOK 42.4 per share. stock moved up. So then that yield is inverse to about 12%. That being said, on the basis of the NAV, which is fixed as of June 30 at 49.8%, we're a little over 10% of dividend yield. And since the IPO and following this distribution, we will have distributed over $3.25 to be more precise per share, which is about 65% of the initial capital raised, of course, back in 2023. In terms of the supply growth and slippage, we do expect a 4.6% fleet growth until the end of 2028. However, it is very important to note that -- the scheduled deliveries in '26, '27, we're going to come back to that, seem to be relatively high, but there is ongoing shipyard delays, which we are referred to as slippage ongoing, which is a rather convincing leading indicator that the actual deliveries are probably likely to be pushed out, which means that we would see a probably more moderate fleet growth on the supply side. And this is really based on information, actual information that we have with shipyards, other projects we're looking at vessels and the shipyards themselves are telling us that there are more delays there because the equipment cannot be provided in time. In terms of the short and medium-term outlook, I referred to it a little bit just earlier, but we remain quite optimistic, of course, that at some point, there's going to be a gradual resolution of the disruption at the Strait. But obviously, depending on what date you're looking at and when you prepare materials, we have prepared these materials in last week for the Board. And between last week and this week, we have seen, of course, some changes in geopolitics. But this has been, of course, the flavor of the month and the last few months, I would say, and no surprises there. Important strategic update. So in order to maximize the shareholder returns, of course, which is the priority. But at the same time, we want to continue to benefit from these elevated earnings. The Board has agreed to realize the company's fleet in an orderly manner within the next 18 months, which, of course, is within the 5-year investment horizon that we had indicated and prior to each vessel's next major CapEx event. While we will be doing that, nothing will change vis-a-vis the company's operating platform. So any time through that realization process, we will have enough support and an efficient management of the remaining fleet. That being said, of course, if something material changes or happens between now and then, we will, of course, let you know. But obviously, we have performed this for and sell analysis, which seems to suggest that holding the ships at this point in time is much more rewarding than selling them. And as such, we will do so in an orderly fashion as we just described. On the next slide, we see the NAV performance since inception. Obviously, as I said, the market value NAV at this point in time is about $5.22 per share post a cumulative dividend of $3.1 per share or $41.9 million. This NAV total return since inception has been about 74.3% with STST having returned 62% of the capital as dividends. On the right side, you see the IPO proceeds represented about $4.73 per share. The net operating profit realized over this period of time has been a little over $2, $2.07 per share. The capital appreciation, the change in the vessel value has been about $1.34 per share. And we have paid out dividends, as I just said, of 3.1, which gives us the market-based NAV of at 30th of June 2026. We see a steady market in July, and we have reason for optimism. As we said, the left side graph shows you what has happened in the market in terms of where the exports are coming from in the current market, which is primarily, of course, on the Atlantic Basin and in the U.S. side of things with the Arabian Gulf, of course, having increased significantly since the conflict represented about 320,000 roughly at the moment. At the end of the second quarter, American export demand appeared to have plateaued, whereas Asia continues to provide support. But that being said, there is other events that obviously create further inefficiencies. And this is what we have seen very much just recently with what is happening in the Red Sea and charterers directing ships in order to avoid the Red Sea to actually go back up through the Suez Canal in order to go back to Asia, which results in voyages of about 75 days, which are effectively increasing ton-mile demand by making a lot of ships unavailable due to longer durations. And this has been the theme this entire first half of 2026. And as things stand, we do not see that to be changing much over the next few months. So as we said, the TCs were strong at $21,000 per day. Seasonally, at the moment, they seem to appear closer to the $17,000, $18,000 range, which was our expectation anyways for the next quarter coming up. And then, of course, we are rather optimistic for what's coming even within the end of third quarter, probably looking into the fourth quarter. On the next slide, this is an important element here, total oil inventories have significantly dropped. That is on the right side. So 2 themes on this page. On the left side is the percentage of fleet that is under sanctions, and that continues to be at about high levels of 17% with the average of those ships being 20 years old. That being said, what is currently happening is that the product tanker market continues to be very strong and earnings continue to be very healthy, which obviously limits any kind of swing tonnage into the chemical tanker market. And on the other hand, what has happened with the closure of the straight of bus for March, the global oil supplies have relied on inventory drawdowns. And you can see that with the blue dotted line, which represents approximately 200 million barrels of drawdown, primarily in the U.S. exports, which has balanced the oil market and reduced volatility. What you will see and you typically see it and you will probably see it is that these inventories will need replacement security of supply, and that is likely to provide more support for tanker rates and as a result, of course, the chemical rates. On this next page, with the fleet growth, -- and we've been seeing these numbers, and these numbers have been always looking rather high, and they are on a relative basis and historical basis. But that being said, in reality, what is happening is slippage, and we highlight that as well in -- on this slide, which, as I said a bit earlier, in other discussions with shipyards at the moment, they are telling us themselves that even if you're trying to buy a resale, which is a ship that is about to get delivered that has been ordered by someone else and that you're trying to benefit from purchasing it now and getting the earnings immediately. because of some equipment being unavailable, the shipyards are effectively pushing back the deliveries of this year to sometime in early '27. And we don't see that theme changing given the number of deliveries that are expected in the front end. So with that in mind, we are very skeptical a little bit of what the actual order book deliveries will look like and which obviously represents another element of optimism on our end. I spoke about that 4%, 4.5% growth until '28. But obviously, one needs to make their own assumptions on what slippage would represent, which is probably going to take that number below the 4% annual long-term demand growth CAGR for our type of products. And Yes, if there is a long-term non-resolution of the strait of Hormuz conflict, that could represent a more significant demand destruction. That being said, we have now been unfortunately in this conflict for over 5 months. And even the market seems to somehow adjust to the current situation. But let's see. It's an evolving, we all hope for a resolution at some point in time in any kind of resolution, we are of the firm view that rates are probably going to spike again, and we will be positioned in a way to capitalize on that. And with that in mind, Irene, I'll pass it to you to walk us through the next slide on Page 8 and second quarter financial performance.

Turning to Slide 8 and as already highlighted by Nicolas, the second quarter represented a significantly stronger quarter for the company with improvements across utilization, earnings, profitability as well as the balance sheet metrics. On the operational side, looking at fleet utilization, this has increased to 99.8%, up from 93.1% in the first quarter. This primarily reflects the completion of Barbon scheduled dry dock in the previous quarter, resulting in significantly fewer off-hire days during the period. Supported by stronger market conditions, the average net OTC increased by 28% to approximately $29,000 per day. compared to $16.4 per day in the previous quarter. This brings us to a net revenue of $11.3 million, which is approximately 40% quarter-on-quarter increase compared to $8 million in the first quarter. Moving on to the vessel operating expenses. These are broadly in line with our expectations, and this reflects minor technical and operational incidents across our fleet. SG&A variance attributable to noncash fair value adjustment for tranche 2 and tranche 3. EBITDA increased to $6.6 million from $3.4 million in the first quarter the company profit of 2.5 million compared with a small net loss in the first quarter. From a balance sheet perspective, net market value increased to approximately N 101.8 million, while [indiscernible] improved to 4.8% from 5% at the end of the previous quarter. This supported growth in NAV to 5.22 per share, which is equivalent to approximately 49.8 based on the FX rate at the time of the translation. $0.135 per share dividend has been declared for the second quarter and is expected to be paid on or about 1st of September. And as mentioned, this is -- this represents an annualized yield of approximately 13% based on the share price. Including this dividend, [indiscernible] since amount 24, which is roughly 65% of the capital raised at the listing. Overall, this quarter we delivered a strong improvement in earnings and profitability, and this was mainly driven by the higher utilization and the stronger pool rates. This concludes our presentation, and we now move to answer any questions.

Okay. In terms of the questions that I see, thank you, Irene. We talked about the TC rates. In terms of dividends, there's a question here that whether we expect dividends to continue as part of the realization process, the guess, the intent is to continue doing so. The level of those dividends, of course, will need to be reviewed given the number of vessels that you will have at that point in time and the earnings, of course, because the idea is to be dividend out cash and not to keep cash. But of course, that is exactly what we will keep doing. And as soon as, of course, any vessel is realized, we will be doing capital returns on that front anyways. So as we said, this was a full payout company, and this is what this company will continue to do. Irene, there's a question in here about the quarterly decrease in the payables. I think that...

Yes, I can cover, Nicolas. This was mainly due to the decrease of the amount due to the ship managers. At the previous quarter and end of December 2025, this was mainly due to the payables related to the dry dock cost. As you recall, in the last quarter of 2025, we had 2 dry docks occurred, which this resulted in the high payables amount to the ship managers. As a result, during the quarter, most of those payables have been repaid.

And then we have a question here. What is the -- whether the rates will move back up to $21,000. If not, what rate do you reasonably forecast over the next 12, 18 months? So we are running our numbers. I mean, obviously, we don't know if the rates are going to come out at 210, maybe they will go, maybe they will go higher. We are running our numbers conservatively $18,000, $19,000 for the rest of this year and then next year, 2027 at about an average of $20,000 per day. So that's roughly what we are looking at. In terms of the liquidity of the chemical tanker markets, it's relatively healthy, I would say. We have seen some transactions of similar aged ships at firm rates. Obviously, the idea and the cautious approach would be to do this ordinary, as we said, and not blast the market because obviously, people will think that we are anxious sellers, which we are not, and then that affects value. But there are transactions out there. And very recently, there was even a block transaction, which gives values very close to the asset values that are assumed by the brokers and that we have presented as the basis for the market value NAV of our fleet. So I think that answers that question. And we'll give people a couple more minutes if there are any other questions. At the moment, I don't see any in the queue. We're very excited with this quarter. As we said, very good numbers. Hopefully, people move on the stock and bridge that gap on NAV. We think discount there is warranted. And obviously, with a strategic and clear path on what is coming, bearing any materiality, we see -- there's another question came in, time line for disposals to be extended. We don't think so. What really -- unless this vehicle was not going to be realized within this 5-year time line that we had indicated at the beginning, we do not see extending opportunity. We do think that vessels can be traded over 20 years if the vehicle had another 5 years. But obviously, it's not the intent to extend the time line for disposals. And we feel quite confident that there will be a market out there for our ships if and when the time comes -- so if there aren't any other questions, it doesn't seem there are. Thank you, everyone, for joining this call. We look forward to speaking to all of you at the next quarterly meeting in November. And until then, we wish everyone a good rest of the summer and see you all soon. Thank you very much.