In a remarkable display of financial growth, StealthGas Inc. (NASDAQ: NASDAQ:GASS) has reported a record-breaking second quarter for 2024, with net income soaring to $25.8 million, marking a 146% increase from the previous year. The company's voyage revenues climbed by 14% to $41.8 million, and earnings per share surged to $0.70, up by 159%. The firm has also made significant strides in reducing its debt, prepaying $107 million and bolstering its liquidity to $76.6 million.
Key Takeaways
- StealthGas Inc. achieved a net income of $25.8 million in Q2 2024, a 146% year-over-year increase.
- Earnings per share rose to $0.70, a 159% improvement from the previous year.
- Voyage revenues grew to $41.8 million, a 14% increase.
- The company's debt reduction strategy has been effective, with $107 million prepaid and a strong liquidity position at $76.6 million.
- 60% of StealthGas's fleet is trading in Europe, with 85% contract coverage for 2024 and 55% for 2025.
- LPG exports are growing, especially from the U.S., with China and India driving demand.
- The company has 24 unencumbered vessels and a net debt ratio below 5%.
- Management believes StealthGas is an undervalued investment and anticipates a strong winter season.
Company Outlook
- StealthGas is optimistic about the upcoming winter season, expecting increased LPG demand for heating.
- The company is confident about market conditions, particularly in the pressurized and handysize vessel segments.
Bearish Highlights
- There were no specific bearish highlights discussed in the earnings call.
Bullish Highlights
- The LPG market exhibits strong fundamentals, with limited new vessel orders enhancing prospects for StealthGas's fleet.
- U.S. exports of LPG have risen by 11% in the first half of 2024, indicating robust market conditions.
Misses
- The earnings call did not report any misses in the company's financial performance or strategic initiatives.
Q&A Highlights
- CEO Harry Vafias highlighted the record-breaking profits for Q2 2024 as a historic achievement for StealthGas.
- Vafias noted that all vessels are fixed, with 55% of the fleet secured for employment next year.
- The rates west of Suez continue to be significantly higher than those in the Eastern market, according to Vafias.
StealthGas has been adeptly navigating the geopolitical landscape, adjusting its fleet strategy to avoid trading routes deemed unsafe, such as the Red Sea. The company's strategic focus on debt reduction and chartering has led to a robust financial position, with 24 unencumbered vessels and a net debt ratio under 5%. Management's proactive chartering approach has secured longer-term contracts, capitalizing on favorable market conditions.
The LPG market outlook remains promising, with the U.S. showing an 11% increase in exports and China hitting a record high demand. India also continues to be a significant market driver. These factors, combined with a limited number of new vessel orders, present a bullish scenario for the company's specialized fleet.
As StealthGas prepares for a strong winter season, with heightened LPG demand, CEO Harry Vafias's confidence in the company's market valuation and future prospects resonates across the industry. With a strategic fleet placement and an optimistic outlook, StealthGas appears poised for continued growth in the LPG shipping sector.
Full transcript - StealthGas Inc (GASS) Q2 2024:
Conference Operator: Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Steve Gas Second Quarter 2024 Results Conference Call and Webcast. At this time, all participants is in listen only mode with no question and answer session at the end. Please note that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your speaker, Mr.
Michael Jolief, Chairman of the Board. Please go ahead.
Michael Jolley, Chairman of the Board of Directors, StealthGas: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our Q2 2024 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. I'm Michael Jolley, Chairman of the Board of Directors. And joining me on our call today as usual is our CEO, Harry Vafias to discuss the market and company outlook and Constantino's sister, Juarez to discuss the financial aspects. Before we commence our presentation, I would like to remind you that we will be discussing forward looking statements, which reflect current views with respect to future Exchange Commission. Risks are further disclosed in StealthGas filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Today, we released our results for the Q2. 3 months ago, I was here announcing to you our record 1st quarter profits, so it is with great delight that we have managed to follow-up on that by announcing yet another record of quarterly profits. So let's proceed to discuss these results and update you on the company's strategy and the market in general. Turning to Slide 3, we summarize some highlights for our fleet and operations. During the 6 months, we have sold 2 smaller vessels and got delivery of 2 brand new medium gas carriers.
We also sold 1 medium gas carrier owned through our joint venture. These have been discussed in the previous call. We did not engage in any further sale and purchase activity in the current quarter. With the market remaining firm, we were quite active on the chartering side entering into more period charters and extending contract coverage for 2025 to 55 percent of our fleet days. We have thus contracted revenues of over $220,000,000 for all subsequent periods, excluding our joint venture vessels and remain focused on maintaining our minimal spot exposure.
Moving to our financial highlights, we continued to produce record results by increasing revenues and reducing costs. With an 11% reduction in fleet days due to vessel sales, voyage revenues increased to $41,800,000 or 14% year over year, while they remained flat compared to the previous quarter. Net income for the Q2 was a record $25,800,000 compared to $10,500,000 last year, a 146 percent increase. Even better with the earnings per share at $0.70 marking a 159% increase due to the lower share count as a result of share buybacks. So far this year, we have scaled back the share repurchases and bought back about 400,000 worth during the first half, and we actually did not buy back any shares during the Q2, so there is about $5,500,000 left to authorize for share repurchases.
We've been very active in implementing our debt reduction strategy since the beginning of the year. And up until today, we drew down on a $70,000,000 facility to finance the delivery of our MGC vessels and prepaid 4 facilities that together with regular amortization reduced the debt by another $107,000,000 Let us move on to slide 4 for our fully owned fleet employment update as of September as we have interesting news on that front. Once again, we've had a lot of activity on the chartering site during the summer and ahead of what we hope will be a busy winter. Today, we announced 9 new period charters, 5 of those were extensions with current charters. What is particularly noteworthy is that the majority of these charters were for relatively long periods.
2 of the charters were for 3 years and 3 of the charters were for 2 years, all with established names. This kind of activity certainly bodes well in terms of expectations as fixing longer term is normally a sign that charters are looking to secure tonnage in a rising market ahead of any rises, whereas in a hoarding market nobody is rushing to fix. During the latest charters, we have increased our contracted days for 2024 to 85% and for 2025 to 55 percent already securing over $220,000,000 in revenue up to 2027. At the moment, all the vessels are fixed. No vessel is operating in the spot market, although we would expect to have a couple of openings before the year end.
Lastly, as far as drydocking for 2024, 2 of our vessels went into drydock during the Q2 and extending into the Q3, and we have 5 more small LPG vessels scheduled for drydock before the end of the year. In slide 5, we look separately on our investments. That is the interest we hold in 5 vessels through 2 joint venture structures that we do not consolidate in our results, but use the equity method of accounting. The book value of our investments as of June 30 stood at $30,000,000 compared to $42,000,000 at the end of the $2,000,000
Constantino Sistovaris, CFO, StealthGas: at the
Michael Jolley, Chairman of the Board of Directors, StealthGas: end of the previous quarter. The reduction was due to the sale of the medium gas carrier, EcoEtheril during the Q2. As previously discussed during previous call, we received $24,000,000 in cash as a return from investment from the sale and accumulated profits. Other than this, there was not much activity in terms of sale and purchase or chartering. As a reminder, we had initially co invested in 4 more medium gas carriers that were all subsequently sold and the 2 joint ventures consist now of a brand new medium gas carrier and several and separately 4 small gas carriers.
All these vessels are financed. The average age of the 4 small gas carriers is 15 years and the joint venture is in its 5th year, so it would make sense to bring that investment full circle soon when and if the conditions are right. In terms of our fleet geography presented in Slide 6, our company mainly focuses on regional trade and local distribution of gas, while the larger vessels often engage in intercontinental voyages. This graph is a snapshot of the positioning of the fleet, including the joint venture vessels as of the end of August. The majority of our fleet, 19 vessels or 60% currently trade in Europe, particularly in the Northwest and in the Mediterranean.
We have strategically focused over the past several quarters on this area as the freight rates west of Suez continue to command a period a premium over east of Suez as well as the fact that terminals in that area adhered to strict vetting requirements that favor modern and well maintained vessels and operators with proficient safety management systems. As such, we have looked for opportunities to move vessels out of the Asian market via the Cape of Good Hope since the Red Sea continues to be unsafe for navigation and into the Atlantic and are left with only 3 vessels trading in the Middle and Far East. We will wait for a narrowing of the gap between West and East rates to move more vessels back in the area. We also now have 5 vessels trading in the U. S.
And Caribbean and 5 in Africa in some specialized trades. The attacks in the Red Sea by Houthis have escalated. This means less Middle East exports destined for Europe and replaced by U. S. Exports to Europe.
Our Handysize vessels particularly do increase transatlantic trades between U. S. And Europe. Finally, I would also like to note that we have been increasingly engaged in ammonia trades that our Handys and MGC vessels can carry. 2 of our vessels are currently transporting ammonia cargoes.
I will now turn the call over to Constantino Sistovaris for our financial performance. Thank you.
Constantino Sistovaris, CFO, StealthGas: Thank you, Michael, and good morning to everyone. I will discuss our financial results that were released today. Let us turn to Slide 7, where we see a snapshot of the income statement for the Q2 6 months of 2024 against the same periods of 2023. With fewer vessels in the fleet and the corresponding reduction of 11% in fleet days for the quarter and 13% for the 6 month period, Net revenues that is after voyage expenses came in at €39,100,000 for the quarter, an increase of 18% and €77,800,000 for the 6 months, an increase of 16% as a result of increased rates due to better market condition, reduced of hires and voyage costs reduced due to lower spot exposure. And finally, also the addition of 2 larger vessels in the fleet with higher earnings capacity that contributed about $12,000,000 in revenues in the 1st 6 months.
Operating expenses were $12,500,000 for the quarter, down 7% and $24,000,000 for the 6 months, down 14% as a result of the reduction in the fleet. Overall, expenses have been under increased pressure due to the inflation, but so far in the 1st 2 quarters of 2024, we have managed to contain these pressures in line with the general slowing down of inflation in the economy. We also note the decrease in dry docking costs of €900,000 for the quarter. Last year 2 handysize vessels were drydocked, whereas this year it was 2 smaller vessels, smaller LPGs and the increase of 1,200,000 in G and A costs as a result of an increase in stock based compensation expenses. There were no impairments nor any gains or losses from sale of vessels during the Q2.
As a result of the increase in revenues and decrease in costs, income from operations increased 60% to $16,100,000 for the quarter and increased 70% to CAD 33,600,000 for the 6 month period. Interest and finance costs also slightly increased year on year, but that is because in the 1st two quarters of last year were included some profits from the selling of swap positions due to the debt repayments and that was not the case for the 1st two quarters of this year. The profits from the investment in the joint venture amounted to $11,500,000 for the 2nd quarter $14,000,000 for the 6 months. In both 6 month periods of last year and this year, besides the operating profits, there were profits from sale of vessels. This year, the profits from the sale of the Echo Ethereal by their joint venture boosted the investment returns in the Q2 by $9,500,000 As a result of the above, we ended the Q2 of 2024 with net income of $25,800,000 compared to 10,500,000 for the same quarter of last year, a 146% increase, while on an adjusted basis net income was 27,500,000 versus 10,700,000 last year, a 158% increase.
For the 6 months period, net income was 43,500,000 and 46,700,000 on an adjusted basis, a 60% and 67% improvement compared to last year's 6 month period. Earnings per share for the Q2 were $0.70 a 159% improvement and $1.20 for the 6 months, a 69% improvement compared to last year. These were record quarterly results for the company and the most profitable 6 months in its history. Moving on to the balance sheet in slide 8, our liquidity including restricted cash was at the end of the quarter $76,600,000 reduced by 8.5% compared to December 31. The company in spite of the continuous debt repayments maintains ample liquidity.
Vessels held for sale that were $34,900,000 as of December 31 were nil as of June 30 as there are currently no vessels contracted to be sold. Also deposits for vessels that were $23,400,000 as of December 31 were nil as of June 30 as the 2 medium gas carriers were delivered to the company and there are no vessels contracted to be bought. Vessels book value increased from $504,300,000 to $611,300,000 a significant 21% increase as a result of the addition of the 2 medium gas carrier vessels. The book value of our investments in our joint ventures was $29,800,000 a $10,000,000 reduction compared to December 31, as the company received back its investment on the vessel that was sold during the Q2 through a dividend. Total (EPA:TTEF) assets of the company increased 4.4% to $727,800,000 compared to December 31.
Moving on to the liability side, the current portion of the long term debt was halved to annual repayments of 8,700,000 dollars while the long term portion of the debt stood at $106,900,000 as of December 31, then $144,000,000 and $145,400,000 as of March 31, and was reduced to below $100,000,000 for the first time in over 15 years, standing at $98,800,000 as of June 30, and will be reduced further in the Q3. Shareholders' equity increased to 8.5 percent or $46,600,000 over the 6 month period. Concluding our financial commentary with slide 9, we will briefly have a closer look at our debt structure as this is where the company has focused in recent times. During 2023, the company very aggressively halved its outstanding debt with over 154,000,000 of debt repayments. Then in the beginning of 2024, a new cheaper facility was concluded in the order of 70,000,000 for the brand new vessels and with an 8 year tenure, while 85,300,000 of existing debt was repaid.
In the current quarter, the company has already prepaid another $21,300,000 As a result of the debt amortization is now reduced to just $6,400,000 per annum compared to $30,000,000 just 2 years ago. And that will allow significantly faster cash flow accumulation going forward. With close to $70,000,000 in cash, the company is now close to being net debt free. There are only 3 mortgage vessels out of 27 in the fleet and that means much lower cash flow breakevens for our vessels. Obviously, we have eliminated refinancing risk.
There is only $115,000,000 balloon at the end of 2025. And the next balloon is from the finance we just recently received that matures in 2,032. I will now hand you over to our CEO, Harry Vafias, who will discuss market and company outlook.
Harry Vafias, CEO, StealthGas: Moving on Slide 10. We have a brief insight on the LPG market. LPG exports increased by strong 4.3% in 2023, and we continued to see exports increasing 3.6% in the first half of this year, slightly lower than in the first quarter but still healthy. Exports from the largest LPG exporter in the world, the U. S, continued to grow unabated in the 1st 6 months of this year at 11%, and the impact of hurricane burial on these exports seems to have been minimal for Q3.
The issue is now becoming whether the U. S. Will hit an export ceiling due to the capacity constraints. To avoid that, companies like Enterprise Product Partners, Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET) and Targa are already planning capacity expansions at the U. S.
Terminal so that volumes can increase by over 20% by the end of 'twenty six. On the other hand, Middle East exports remain flat as long as OPEC extends its production cuts. And until those are lifted, we do not expect any meaningful change in volumes coming from the Arabian Gulf. Although increasing volumes are sent from the U. S.
To Europe, LPG demand in Europe has remained relatively flat and a lot will depend on whether we experienced the same mild winter as we did last year. To note that the 1 year phase in of the import ban on Russian volumes that was introduced last year comes into effect this December. This means that Russian volumes that accounted for 6% of imports in 2023 will be banned. Countries such as Poland that imported LPG via rail will now have to rely more on seaborne imports. In terms of imports, the driving force of LPG demand is China and India.
During the first half of this year, seaborne import volumes in China rose by 11% year on year and even hit an all time high of 1,400,000 barrels a day in July. India, where 45% of LPG demand is for household usage, is expected to grow its economy by 7% next year, according to the World Bank, and LPG demand is expected to grow alongside of it. Indian elections were held through June, and the incumbent government that has so far been supportive of LPG consumption, propelling the nation to number 2 import in the world, won the elections. In China, the driving force for LPG demand is, of course, expansion of PDH capacity for the production of propylene. While utilization rates remained subdued during the first half of the year, LPG remained a competitive fuel compared to NAFTA during this period.
During 2023, 9 new PDH plants came on stream, adding 5,400,000 tons of capacity. So far this year, 6 new plants have started up, adding another 4,200,000 tons, and capacity additions are expected to reach 5,000,000 tons by the end of this year. Another 6,000,000 tons are scheduled for 25,000,000, a growth of over 60% compared to 23 levels. Slide 11 represents some of the key fundamentals in our shipping market commencing with time charter rates for our market. Rates tend to fall during the Q2, but it remained firmed at historically high levels for the smaller vessels, while we did experience a drop for the larger ships.
At the small LPG trade, we saw continued strength in touch of the pressurized market through Q2, especially in the Atlantic. The spot market West of Suez was tight on tonnage and rates remained firm. The East of Suez spot market on the other hand was softer with both lower rates and more idle time experienced by owners. On the period side, we saw further rate rises, especially in the West. Most vessel sizes in the pressurized market are now at historically high levels.
West of Suez and we also see charters keen to secure longer periods than 1 year. The rates west of Suez continue to sit in significantly above the Eastern market. On the Handysize segment, we saw a softening in the spot market through Q2. This is partly due to more difficult trading conditions for LPG and partly due to the petchem market, apart from ethylene, underperforming compared to expected activity. Also, the time charter market experienced a softening of rates compared to Q1.
Short term, we expect the segment the TC market to show improvement in Q4. Medium to longer term, the fundamentals for the Handysize segment look strong with an almost non existent order book, especially for standard semi ref tonnage. The main risk factor at the moment remains the growing midsize order book, which could worst case scenario put down pressure on the Handy segment. On the medium sized ships, a significantly softer VLGC market compared to Q1 resulted in a softer Q2 also for this market. Although a limited number of spot vessels were available, the lack of demand led to falling rates and some vessels incurring idle time.
As a result, also the time charter rates showed a downturn correction. However, the limited number of new buildings entering the market before 2025 has assisted in limiting the fall. However, more long term, the order book situation for MGCs starts to look worrisome. More orders are piling in with 2728 deliveries and the order book ratio has now surpassed 40%. There's a lot of optimism as these vessels also carry ammonia and ammonia is the candidate for the next generation of clean fuel for shipping.
But this is still a speculation at this point. And if this doesn't happen, there's going to be an oversupply of vessels. The order book situation is quite different in the overlooked handysize fleet, where there are 0 vessels delivering over the next year, and the order book remains healthy, although recently we did see some new orders being placed for 5 ships for 2728. As far as our core fleet is concerned of pressurized ships, the situation has not changed much. We continue to see only a handful of vessels being ordered with the order book ratio near the 5% mark for the next 3 years.
This team ordering, coupled with the fact that almost onethree of the fleet is over 20 years of age, make the fundamentals for this segment look quite promising. We would like to have seen more scrapping given the age of the fleet, but due to the firm market, owners have not sold any vessels for scrapping thus far. In the last slide, we're outlining some of the key variables that may affect our performance in the quarters ahead. In the short term, we're entering the seasonally strong winter periods, and we expect activity to pick up as demand for LPG, particularly for heating, rises. We continue to remain optimistic on the longer term for the reasons we analyzed earlier.
To sum up, today, we announced yet another record breaking quarter. Profits that were more than double compared to last year of DKK 25,800,000 for the Q2 of 2024, are at an all time high for the company in the 20 years since its inception. While we managed to contain our operating costs, we took full advantage of a strong chartering market, fixing vessels at higher rates during that and previous quarters, whose benefits we are enjoying now. The bottom line was further bolstered by the return from our investments related to the sale of a vessel by one of our JVs. We continue with the strategy of debt reduction.
And in the current quarter, we have Shopify (NYSE:SHOP) paid $21,000,000 of debt and now have 24 unencumbered vessels, the vast majority of the fleet and a net debt ratio below 5%. 2nd part of our strategy was to fix on period, taking advantage of the strong market while securing our cash flow. We have successfully implemented that so far as all the vessels are fixed and have managed to secure employment for 55% of the fleet for next year. Overall, we have secured $220,000,000 in future revenues. As we continuously improve our profitability, setting the bar higher every time, we believe we continue to be a sound, undervalued investment, not just because we are optimistic on the market and have been producing results, but also as we are paying at a discount in terms of price to NAV and price to earnings ratio.
We have now reached the end of our presentation. I'd like to thank you for joining us at our conference call and for your interest and trust in our company. And we look forward to having you again with us at our next call for our Q3 results in November. Thank you very much.
Conference Operator: This concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.
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