KNOT Offshore Partners LP (NYSE:KNOP) reported a third-quarter net loss, missing earnings forecasts, despite revenues exceeding expectations. The company posted an earnings per share (EPS) loss of 11.08 cents, compared to the anticipated loss of 3.5 cents. Revenue reached $76.29 million, surpassing the projected $72.81 million. Following the earnings announcement, the stock saw a modest increase of 0.68% in after-hours trading, reflecting mixed investor sentiment.
Key Takeaways
- KNOT Offshore Partners LP reported a larger-than-expected EPS loss.
- Revenue exceeded forecasts, indicating strong operational performance.
- Stock price rose slightly post-earnings, suggesting cautious optimism.
- Vessel utilization remained high at 98.8%.
- The company declared a cash distribution of $0.26 per common unit.
Company Performance
KNOT Offshore Partners LP demonstrated resilience in the third quarter of 2024, with revenues climbing to $76.29 million. This represents a robust performance in the face of challenging market conditions. The company's high vessel utilization rate of 98.8% underscores its strong operational efficiency. However, the larger-than-expected net loss highlights ongoing financial pressures.
Financial Highlights
- Revenue: $76.29 million, exceeding forecasts and showcasing operational strength.
- Operating Income: $17.2 million, reflecting efficient cost management.
- Net Loss: 3.8%, highlighting financial challenges.
- Adjusted EBITDA: $45.1 million, supporting liquidity and operational stability.
- Available Liquidity: $77 million, including $67 million in cash.
Earnings vs. Forecast
KNOT Offshore Partners LP reported an EPS loss of 11.08 cents, missing the forecasted loss of 3.5 cents. This represents a negative surprise of approximately 216%. The significant miss compared to expectations underscores the challenges the company faces in managing costs and achieving profitability.
Market Reaction
Following the earnings release, KNOT Offshore Partners LP's stock experienced a slight increase of 0.68% in after-hours trading. This movement suggests a cautious optimism among investors, despite the earnings miss. The stock remains within its 52-week range, with a recent close at $5.86, compared to a high of $9.11 and a low of $4.94.
Company Outlook
Looking ahead, KNOT Offshore Partners LP plans to renew its revolving credit facilities in the first half of 2025. The company is also focused on marketing the Dan Sabia for additional charter opportunities and exploring potential dropdown opportunities with five vessels eligible. Management is considering capital allocation strategies, including potential dividend increases.
Executive Commentary
"We are making good progress and are pleased to have established positive momentum against an improving market backdrop," stated Derek Lowe, CEO/CFO. Lowe emphasized the company's growth strategy through dropdowns and noted strengthening market conditions.
Q&A
During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the increase in operational expenses and explored current charter rates and market conditions. Discussions also covered potential deployment strategies for the Dan Sabia and considerations for shareholder value, including the possibility of restarting dividends.
Risks and Challenges
- Upcoming debt maturities may impact financial flexibility.
- Market saturation and competitive pressures in the shuttle tanker sector.
- Fluctuations in charter rates could affect revenue stability.
- Macroeconomic pressures may influence oil and gas production levels.
- Potential supply chain disruptions could impact vessel operations.
The company's strategic initiatives and market positioning will be crucial in navigating these challenges and capitalizing on growth opportunities in the evolving energy landscape.
Full transcript - KNOT Offshore Partners LP (KNOP) Q3 2024:
Breka, Moderator: Good morning, and thank you all for joining. I would like to welcome you all to the Knott Offshore Partners Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. My name is Breka, and I will be your moderator for today. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call with the opportunity for questions and answers at the end. I would now like to pass the conference over to your host, Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer at KNOT Offshore Partners.
Thank you. You may proceed, Derek.
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: Thank you, Brieke, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Derek Low. I'm the Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer of KNOT Offshore Partners. Welcome to the Partnership's earnings call for the Q3 of 2024. Our website is knottoffshorepartners.com, and you can find the earnings release there along with this presentation.
On Slide 2, you will find guidance on the inclusion of forward looking statements in today's presentation. These are made in good faith and reflect management's current views, known and unknown risks, and are based on assumptions and estimates that are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond our control. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in forward looking statements, and the partnership does not have or undertake a duty to update any such forward looking statements made as of the date of this presentation. For further information, please consult our SEC filings, especially in relation to our annual and quarterly results. Today's presentation also includes certain non U.
S. GAAP measures, and our earnings release includes a reconciliation of these to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. On Slide 3, we have the financial and operational headlines for Q3. Revenues were $76,300,000 operating income $17,200,000 and there was a net loss of 3.8 percent. Adjusted EBITDA was 45,100,000.
We closed Q3 with $77,000,000 in available liquidity, made up of $67,000,000 in cash and cash equivalents, plus £10,000,000 in undrawn capacity on our credit facilities. We operated with 98.8 percent utilization and the vessel time available for scheduled operations was not impacted by any planned dry docking. Following the end of Q3, we declared a cash distribution of US0.2 6 dollars per common unit, which was paid in early November. On to Slide 4. Our outlook remains positive on both industry dynamics and the partnership's positioning to participate fruitfully in our markets.
Significant growth is anticipated in production in fields, which rely on service by shuttle tankers. We see around 11 new builds on order, including for our sponsor Knutsen NYK. And we expect to see further new build orders placed in order to service the large new production volumes coming online in the years ahead. A measured amount of new shuttle tanker ordering is unavoidable and in fact necessary as a shortage of shuttle tanker capacity remains projected in the coming years. The partnership remains financially resilient with a strong contracted revenue position of $980,000,000 at the end of Q3 on fixed contracts, which averaged 2.8 years in duration.
Charterers' options are additional to this and average a further 2.4 years. Our pattern of cash generation and liquidity balance is sufficient for our operations and the significant pay down rate for our debt, which is in the reach of $90,000,000 per year for installment payments. And our near term chartering exposure has reduced to Dan Sabia, where we are maintaining our marketing focus. She has secured some conventional cargoes and so is operating commercially while we seek shuttle tanker deployment. On Slide 5, a number of developments in Q3 were announced already on the previous earnings call, including charter extensions for Tordisk Knutsen and Lena Knutsen.
The most important development in Q3 is on Slide 6, showing the swap of down Cisne for Tuber Knutsen. Tuber brought 7 years of fixed or guaranteed future charter revenue and was a significant step in fleet and pipeline growth without the need for new funding. On Slide 7, our most recent developments include the Ingrid Knutsen beginning her charter with E and I in October for 2 years plus two options each of 1 year signature of a charter for the Hilda Knutsen for 1 year fixed commencing March 2025 commencement of the Torill Knutsen's time charter with E and I for 3 years fixed, plus 3 options each of 1 year exercise by Repsol (OTC:REPYY) of their 1 year option on Karman Knutsen commencing Q1 2025 and some short term deployments for the Dan Sarbia on conventional tanker work. On to Slide 8, you can see the consistency of our revenues over the quarters years. This consistency applies also to our operating income when the effects of vessel impairments is removed.
Slide 9 similarly reflects the consistency of our adjusted EBITDA, and you can find the definition of this non GAAP measure in the appendix. On Slide 10, there are 2 notable changes in the balance sheet over the 1st 9 months of 2024. The first is a slight increase in overall liabilities. While we continue contractual debt repayments in the area of $90,000,000 per year, liabilities increased with completion of the Tuva acquisition on the 3rd September. The second is that 2 of our debt facilities have moved up from long term to current liabilities because of their upcoming maturities.
These can be seen on Slide 11, which sets out the maturity profile of our debt facilities. On Line 1, the first of our revolving credit facilities is due to mature in August 2025, and on line 2, around half of the loan secured by Tover Knutsen and Sonova Knutsen matures in September 2025. The remainder of that facility matures in October 2025 and the second revolver matures in November 2025. The highlighted column shows how the outstanding balances of each facility have been reducing because of the repayments we've been making in line with scheduled repayment terms. The current installments are
Liam Burke, Analyst, B. Riley: the amounts of capital repayment due over the next year, do not include interest or
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: the final balloon payments due on the maturity dates. Of note, $96,000,000 in current installments is due to be paid over the 12 months following 30th September. Our typical pattern is for our vessels to provide security for our debt facilities, and that applies to 17 out of 18 vessels in the fleet as of 30th September. At present, Dan Sabia is the only vessel free of debt, and we do not have any plans to incur additional borrowings secured by Dan Sabia until we have better visibility on her future employment. $907,000,000 out of $947,000,000 in debt facilities are secured by vessels, while the 2 revolving credit facilities totaling $50,000,000 of capacity are unsecured.
Slide 12 shows the contracted pipeline in chart format, reflecting the developments I set out earlier. Similarly, Slide 13 highlights the focus of our commercial efforts on adding near term contracts for Down Sarbia. We've made good progress in increasing our fixed charter coverage, and we intend to remain active in that regard. On Slide 14, we see our sponsor's inventory of vessels, which are eligible for purchase by the Partnership. This applies to any vessel owned by or on order for our sponsor, where the vessel has a firm contract period at least 5 years in length.
The present, 5 existing vessels and 5 under construction fall into this category. There is no assurance that any further acquisitions will be made by the partnership, and any transaction will be subject to the Board approval of both parties, which includes the partnership's independent conflicts committee. As we have said, our top priorities remain securing additional contract coverage for our existing fleet and fostering our liquidity position. On Slides 15 and 16, we have provided some useful illustrations of the strong demand dynamics in the Brazilian market, as published by Petrobras. We encourage you to review Petrobras materials directly.
The webpage is shown there. Primary takeaway from each of these slides is consistent. There's very significant committed demand growth coming in the Brazilian market in the form of new FPSOs that will require regular service from shuttle tankers. We believe that reports earlier this year of additional vessel construction contracts are an endorsement of the strong anticipated market conditions in the medium and longer term. Five outstanding newbuild contracts are for our sponsor, Knutsen NYK, and are due for delivery over 202627.
We would expect to see further newbuild orders placed in order to service the large new production volumes coming online in the years ahead, and a material shortage of shuttle tanker capacity remains projected in the coming years. In a trend that also applies to oil production globally, you will see that even in the years ahead where aggregate production growth slows, deep offshore production, in this case, Brazilian Bresalt, continues to outpace the overall market and take market share. On Slide 17, we provide information relevant to our U. S. Unitholders, in particular, those seeking a Form 1099.
Those holding units via their custodians or brokers should approach those parties directly. Those with directly registered holdings should contact our transfer agent, Equiniti Trust Company, whose details are shown there. On Slide 18, we include some reminders of the strong fundamentals of our business: in the market we serve, our assets, competitive landscape, robust contractual footprint and resilient finances. And I'll finish with Slide 19, recapping our financial and operational performance in Q3 2024 and the subsequent time and our current outlook. We're glad to have delivered high and safe utilization, which have generated consistent financial performance.
We're pleased with the new contracts and extensions we've secured during the quarter and since, along with our ability to navigate our refinancing needs and periodic capital expenditure. We're delighted to have taken the growth step of swapping down system for Tuvik Knutsen, And our continued commercial focus remains on filling up 3rd party utilization for the coming months, while looking further forward to longer term charter visibility and liquidity generation. In total, though, we're making good progress and are pleased to have established positive momentum against an improving market backdrop. Thank you for listening. And with that, I'll hand the call back to Brika for any questions.
Breka, Moderator: Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. We have the first question on the line from Liam Burke with B. Riley. Please go ahead.
Liam Burke, Analyst, B. Riley: Thank you. Hi, Derek. How are you?
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: Hi Liam. Good. Thank you. And you?
Liam Burke, Analyst, B. Riley: I'm fine. Thank you. This seems your OpEx jumped about $2,000,000 sequentially. How much of that was related to the Toro repair or if any?
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: Pretty limited amount, well under half of that amount off the top of my head.
Poe Fratt, Analyst, Alliance Global Partners (NYSE:GLP): Okay.
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: Probably a quarter to quarter to the most.
Liam Burke, Analyst, B. Riley: There was some expense baked into that number related to the repair.
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: That's right. We are due to receive the insurance claim proceeds during this quarter. And until we receive it, we don't recognize it. So you don't have the offsetting income to correspond with that and reduce the effect of the net cost to us.
Liam Burke, Analyst, B. Riley: Great. You announced 4 charters or extensions beginning this quarter, which included the Toro. Can you give us a sense, I know you don't give specifics on the contracts, but do you give some color generally how they look visavis where you've been sitting on the charter levels?
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: The new ones, the new news as it were for this quarter, you mean? Or the toll specifically?
Liam Burke, Analyst, B. Riley: No. All of them or just a sense as to
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: where we actually have it going. Well, the rates reflect the market conditions at the time they were contracted. So on Ingrid, I don't have I'm just looking at them in order here on Page 7. On Ingrid, I don't have the signature date in front of me, but it would be it would reflect that. On Hilda, the signature date was October this year.
So that will reflect a current market. Torril is close to current because that signature was in July this year. And then Carmen will go back to the timing of the original contract, which was, I think, some years ago. So Ingrid and Carmen will be older, and Hilda and Tara will be close to current.
Liam Burke, Analyst, B. Riley: Great. Thank you, Derek.
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: Thank you.
Breka, Moderator: Your next question comes from Jim Acho with
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: Hello, Jim.
Breka, Moderator: The line should be open.
Jim, Analyst: Hello.
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: Hello, Jim. I can hear you. Okay. Yes, please go ahead.
Jim, Analyst: Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my call. A couple of things. First of all, in response to previous question, you're talking about how a couple of the new charters are related to current market conditions. Does that mean that the rate is the rate the current market conditions are somewhat lower
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: than
Jim, Analyst: they would have been a couple of years ago? Am I correct in thinking that?
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: It's the other way around. So it's fair to say that market conditions have been strengthening reasonably steadily over that time. So we don't have particular numbers to give you on those contracts, but it's more recent would typically imply better rates or higher rates.
Jim, Analyst: Okay. And with regard to the operating expenses, because you can get in your answer to the previous question, you said that part of it relates to this repair and you're expecting to get at least some of that back from the insurance company. But what are some of the other factors that have increased operating expenses year on year?
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: General operating costs level, so we see increased costs of crewing, particularly relating to travel and increased costs of supplies as well. It's a generally inflation environment unfortunately for our work.
Jim, Analyst: Understood. Thank you very much.
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: Great. Thanks, Jim.
Breka, Moderator: We now have Poe Fratt with Alliance Global Partners.
Poe Fratt, Analyst, Alliance Global Partners: Great. Thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Derek.
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: Hello, Poe.
Poe Fratt, Analyst, Alliance Global Partners: Just wondering, hey, can you just ensure that the presentation is up on the website? I mean, I'm trying to I've been trying the whole call to access it and it's just not up there yet. So you're getting the same feedback from other investors. I think you should be aware.
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: Okay. Thank you. I'm sorry about that. It was approved for publication. So, yes.
Poe Fratt, Analyst, Alliance Global Partners: No, I know when you were referring to it the whole call. So I assume that you thought it was up there, but I haven't been able to access it. Maybe it's just technology. But you talked about the higher OpEx. So there was a little bit of repair from in the Q3, very what 15 days or so.
Is the run rate that we saw in the Q3, would that maybe another way to ask it is, would that be an appropriate run rate for the Q4 or will there be any other changes in OpEx when you look at the Q4 and into 2025?
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: It's probably a good guide or somewhere between the second and third. I don't have a sort of a fine tune comment for you on that, but it's not a bad guide.
Poe Fratt, Analyst, Alliance Global Partners: Okay. And then I'm not sure if I heard it, but have you quantified the amount that you expect to recover in insurance in the 4th quarter?
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: We haven't done that well, in our discussion with the insurance company, we are close to that, but we haven't disclosed that in our release. That's a matter for a 4th quarter report. Well, we report in the quarter when we receive it, and we expect that to be the 4th quarter.
Poe Fratt, Analyst, Alliance Global Partners: And but essentially it's the differential between what the time charter contracted rate was when the when it went when it was impaired operationally, it was still operating, but it wasn't at full capacity, right? So it's just the differential for that. I think it was the 6 day period.
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: It's the difference for a number of days less the deductible that applies to that policy as well. But because she was able to operate on, as you say, an impaired basis rather than not able to operate at all, there's a discussion around how many days should be recognized. But that discussion is substantially complete.
Poe Fratt, Analyst, Alliance Global Partners: Okay. And then you sort of mentioned the revolvers. Can you just talk about how the discussion on the revolvers? Do you expect them to get renewed? What sort of timeframe you're also we should also be expecting those to be if they will be renewed within?
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: We certainly expect to seek to renew them. That discussion with our lenders would normally be over the course of the first half next year. And we would typically, at least in the earlier one, expect to be complete with that discussion by the end of the first half. The second one is due that little bit later November. So that might get into Q3 for that conclusion.
And of course, you're aware of our pattern of results and news flow. So it's likely that you'd hear about it on the earnings release date that followed any conclusion to those.
Poe Fratt, Analyst, Alliance Global Partners: Understood. So maybe possibly in late May or even as late as August, September of next year?
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: Yes. Those are the likely dates of our earnings releases. So we'd expect to include news within that. They aren't renewals of those would not be material enough to warrant a separate announcement, I expect.
Poe Fratt, Analyst, Alliance Global Partners: Understood. And then just to clarify, you talked about that like the carbon, the exercise of the option, that original contract was done at an environment where rates were lower and now rates have improved. You've been talking about that, especially in Brazil, the tone of the market improving. Can you quantify or give us sort of a range percentage range on how much rates have improved visavis like the Carmen option? Is it 10%?
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: Yes. I don't think we can do that. As you're aware, we generally don't give too specific guidance on rates that the vessels are earning. You've obviously got an average rate that can be found from our revenues for the quarter.
Poe Fratt, Analyst, Alliance Global Partners: And then to talk about that, how many actual down days were there during the quarter, Derek? In other words, your operating what was your operating days ex the idle days of the repair days?
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: Yes. We don't have that specific number available. It's quite complex because partial earnings were possible. And we're looking at the difference between rates and not just total day rates. So it's too complex to go into on the call and for putting into a model, I'm afraid.
Poe Fratt, Analyst, Alliance Global Partners: Okay. But and to clarify, the Dansavio did come off of bareboat and go into the conventional market. Hopefully, it'll get into what its higher use potentially is. But that was I think I heard you say about 3 quarters of the increase in the OpEx in the Q3?
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: That will be part of the increase in the OpEx.
Poe Fratt, Analyst, Alliance Global Partners: Okay, great. Thanks for your help.
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: Great. Thanks, Bo.
Breka, Moderator: We now have Pavel Avila with Rock Hill Global.
Pavel Avila, Analyst, Rock Hill Global: Hi. Good afternoon there, Derek. Great quarter. I just wanted to really thank you for all this hard work that you and your chartering department have done, securing great charters and getting great coverage. So I have a few questions, sort of some more specific and some sort of bigger picture.
On the more specific side, the Dan Sabi, if you look on the map, they're going to Panama on a conventional voyage. Is there a thought still to do a swap with the similar to the Dan Cizna to do a drop down or Panama is halfway to Brazil or there is opportunities in Brazil. And just as a color, speaking to some of the clients in Brazil, the day rates now are hovering around 65,000. So even a smaller ship may be able to earn some very good daily rates. Can you maybe walk us through your thinking on the Dansavio?
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: Yes. So we are marketing where in any market that she's capable of operating and obviously that includes Brazil and with some modifications would include the North Sea for shuttle work as well. So yes, we continue to market her directly. She is, as you say, rather smaller than is preferred in Brazil. So despite the high current day rates, it's still difficult to get her deployed.
And in fact, that's the reason she left Brazil in the first place once the that charter comes to an end last summer. In terms of the potential for a swap in similar to the Cissna Tuba swap a few months ago, yes, that's absolutely a potential outcome for her. It obviously relies on the discussion and negotiation between us and Knutsen NYK. It needs to be commercially fitting for both parties. It would be reviewed by our independent conflicts committee.
So the potential is there. And the I guess the commercial thing to be aware of a little bit is that by her sister vessel, Dan Sysner, going to the what's effectively the North Sea pool, that's used up and that's provided some supply into that market. So that market position, the ability of Sabia to be deployed there is somewhat impaired by the fact that the system is there. So the concept of the dropdown absolutely is there. It's got the usual governance process to follow, but the market commercial background to it is a little different from what we have with Cessna last summer.
Pavel Avila, Analyst, Rock Hill Global: Understood. That makes a lot of sense because the legal work should be pretty similar to the Cessna. You can even Xerox (NASDAQ:XRX) or copy the papers and as long as the independent committee is fine with it, that should be helpful. Maybe on the Hilda, the 1 year is there is tightening in the North Sea. Obviously, the production is going up.
Johan Casper is should be starting any day now. What's your projection on or expectation on the North Sea side and especially since there are no new builds?
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: Yes. Well, we'll continue to market Hilda for the period beyond the charter that we've just signed. So that will be from Q1 2026 onwards. And we're certainly very optimistic about market conditions in the North Sea. But as we saw during the course of this year, to actually get from the our view on the market to signature took rather longer than really anybody anticipated.
And what we don't see yet is whether that will change, so whether charterers will be signing further in advance than they chose to this year.
Pavel Avila, Analyst, Rock Hill Global: Understood. Okay. Can I ask a sort of broader and bigger picture question and that is, I have been investing for a long time, but I probably never seen a bigger disconnect between the cost of debt and cost of equity than in your company? The cost of debt is so for plus $220,000,000 you guys have refinanced everything immediately, 0 problems with any refinancing or anything like that. Knock on wood, but you have a very stable through the ownership as well as track record in financing.
So your funding costs are very low. Yet the cost of equity is, I would call it infinite. With the NAV of your or the replacement cost of the ships in mid to high teens, there is an incredible value gap between what the fleet is worth and how you have improved the performance with the share price. We there has been a good pickup in the cash available and the free cash flow even with the repayments. Can you give us a color a little bit on the dividend thoughts on dividend and especially buyback, restarting the dividend gradually?
Because as shareholders, we have not been remunerated almost at all. And for the board members that are listening, it would be good to hear that they're also because they're getting their board fees, if we could get the dividend restarted.
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: Yes, I do understand all of what you've set out there and I do appreciate it. The experience that we've had over the last well, it's at least the last couple of years has been that we really needed to rebuild the visible charter pipeline. You may remember 2 quarters ago, we said that 4 vessels concerned us. Last quarter, we said that 2 vessels concerned us. And now we're saying effectively that it's 1 plus wanting to renew on the order.
So Dan Sabia is the one that concerns us at the moment. So that's progress that we're very pleased with. And we're pleased also that that's been noted and recognized as well among our unitholders. The issue is that the Sabia still needs to be deployed, whether on charter or sold or swapped, whichever the best option is that arises. And we need to continue reviewing the what's visible as our forward pipeline.
The partnership has always grown through dropdowns, and I appreciate that the swaps are very efficient and strategically very useful way of doing it, but there's only one further opportunity for drop down swaps coming up. And but as I say, growth in the past has always been through the drop down schedule, of which there are 5 candidates available on the water at the moment. And so we would what the directors are going to be doing is looking at their own capital allocation, considering which is the better route to be taking, whether it's a distribution increase or combination of the 2.
Pavel Avila, Analyst, Rock Hill Global: Well, one just pointing out that this is the smallest ship. We're 1 out of 18 now. And we have been waiting for a long time. It would be helpful if the Board of Directors and the sponsor, which also owns 30%, would recognize what an incredible opportunity this is to, for example, buy back stock at 30%, 40% of replacement cost. And not a big amount, but just it would be helpful to have the Board and the sponsor sort of acknowledged that they also have shareholders that should reap some of the rewards as the operations have improved.
And you have an opportunity with the declaration of dividend in January to kind of send a signal that you are you care about shareholders as well.
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: Yes. Thank you. I do understand that. And the directors are aware of that too. Thanks.
Thanks, Pavel.
Pavel Avila, Analyst, Rock Hill Global: Thank you, guys, and great quarter. And you guys have done an incredible job on all different all the fronts except one. And I think I would urge the board to really reevaluate given the amount of cash flow that you're bringing in every quarter to send a signal to shareholders that you're there for them as well. Thank you.
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: Yes. Thank you.
Breka, Moderator: Thank you. We now have Clement Mullens with Value Investors Edge on the line.
Clement Mullens, Analyst, Value Investors Edge: Hi, good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. Most has already been covered, but could you talk a bit about your current hedging strategy? You increased the average maturity on your swaps quarter over quarter. And I was wondering, looking ahead, do you expect to maintain the ratio of hedged versus unhedged debt more or less constant?
Or are you willing to lower it a bit given the higher interest rate environment?
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: Thank you for the question. We certainly expect to have in mind the current interest rate levels at the time we enter into any future interest rate swaps. So it's not simply a matter of maintaining the percentage of our debt that is fixed or effectively fixed. We have quite a wide range of hedging policy available to us. So it's between half and threefour of our outstanding debt.
And as I say, that includes debt that's effectively fixed or actually fixed. At the moment, we are on the higher side of that, but we expect that to reduce quite significantly during the course of 2025, which you'll see just from the average maturity of our interest rate swaps that we have disclosed. But we aren't going to be swapping where we think that there's the rates are too high to do that. That's just there's no point economically in doing that. So we don't expect it.
But we have capacity within our hedging policy to allow existing swaps to mature without putting new ones on at rates that we don't like.
Clement Mullens, Analyst, Value Investors Edge: Right. That's helpful. Thank you for taking my questions.
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: Thanks.
Breka, Moderator: Thank you. We have a follow-up question from Jim Ratchel with Aviation Advisory Partners. Please go ahead.
Pavel Avila, Analyst, Rock Hill Global: This isn't
Jim, Analyst: really a question. It's more of a comment. I'm just following up on what the next previous comment about the rewarding to shareholders. Obviously, we don't like to see an increase in both dividend and the stock price, but I don't have any specific numbers in mind, but I would urge you to continue on your look at all these decisions with the conservative banks. I grew up in the airline industry and I mean this is a different kettle of fish, but no pun intended.
I look at all the airlines that went bankrupt after buying back stock even though they were heavily leveraged or much more heavily leveraged than you are. But part of shareholder value is preserving the value for the long term. So although I'd certainly like to see the dividends go back to where they were, I also want this company to survive and be strong for the long term.
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: Okay. Thank you, Jim. Thanks for your input.
Breka, Moderator: Thank you. I can confirm we currently have no further questions, but it's star followed by 1 if you do wish to ask any further questions. We now have a question from Frederic de Brood with Fearnley Securities.
Frederic de Brood, Analyst, Fearnley Securities: Hey, Derek. Congratulations doing a great job with the backlog of the company. And now just Dan Sebia left, he did the auction extension with Kaidmen. And then you have an upcoming firm period on Raquel, which expires at closer to the summer. Could you give more color on timing and of course timing wise when you expect an option extension to be caught?
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: On the Raquel. Yes. We generally find that extensions get chosen pretty late. So there is the chance that it's as late as within the month before commencement of the option period. Ideally, it's longer than that, but we because it's a charter option and we generally don't have much influence over the timing.
Frederic de Brood, Analyst, Fearnley Securities: Okay. Thanks. And now with Hilda getting a contract from March, it will exit the Kvipson pool. Won't that make it more attractive to Kotsell than Seebia, a key sponsor? And call it in the pool replacing Hilda with Seebia?
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: Yes, that certainly helps the demand supply dynamics. Yes. Okay. Thanks, Patrick.
Clement Mullens, Analyst, Value Investors Edge: Thanks.
Breka, Moderator: Thank you. I would now like to hand it back to Derek Forrest for some final closing comments.
Derek Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, KNOT Offshore Partners: Well, thank you all again for joining this earnings call for Connaught Offshore Partners' Q3 in 2024. And apologies to those who couldn't get into the presentation on the website. It certainly was uploaded and approved for public viewing. So and I'll be looking into that. Otherwise, I look forward to speaking with you again following the 4th quarter results.
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