管理層發言
Good day, and welcome to the Costamare Third Quarter 2025 Financial Results Conference Call. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Gregory Zikos, CFO. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. During the third quarter of the year, the company generated net income of about $99 million. After the spin-off of Costamare Partners Holdings Limited, Costamare Inc. remains the sole shareholder of 69 containerships as well as the controlling shareholder of Neptune Maritime Leasing. In September, following up from our previously announced order of 3,100 TEU containerships, we exercised our option for 2 more sister ships to be delivered in Q1 2028. Upon delivery, they will also commence an 8-year time charter with a first-class liner company. Since last quarter, we have also fixed 8 vessels with a forward start for periods ranging from 12 to 38 months. These transactions resulted in increased contracted revenues of about $310 million. Our fleet deployment stands at 100% and 80% for 2025 and 2026, respectively. Total contracted revenues amount to $2.6 billion, with a remaining time charter duration of about 3.2 years. Regarding the market, the positive outcome from the latest trade discussion between the U.S. and China and the delay in the implementation of port fees should positively contribute to globally increased trade flows. With a fleet idle of less than 1%, the charter market remains strong with rates fixed at healthy and stable levels on the back of vessel shortage and steady demand. Finally, with regards to Neptune Maritime Leasing, the growing leasing platform, 50 shipping assets have been funded or are committed and total investments and commitments are exceeding $650 million. Moving now to the slide presentation. On Slide 3, you can see our third quarter results. Adjusted net income was $98 million or $0.81 per share. Net income for the quarter was around $93 million or $0.77 per share. Our liquidity stands at about $560 million. Slide 4. We have concluded newbuilding contracts for another 3,100 TEU containerships with expected delivery in Q1 2028, bringing the total number of newbuilding orders to 6. Upon delivery, each vessel will commence an 8-year charter with a leading liner company. On the employment side, we have increased our contracted revenues through new chartering agreements by more than $310 million. In addition, our revenue days are 100% fixed for 2025 and 80% for 2026, while our contracted revenues are $2.6 billion with a TEU-weighted remaining duration of 3.2 years. Moving to Slide 5. Regarding our financing arrangements, we have agreed to the pre- and post-delivery financing of the 4 newbuilds. We have no major maturities until 2027. On the sale and purchase side, we have concluded the acquisition of a 6,500 TEU container vessel. Slide 6. On our leasing platform, we have invested around $180 million. Neptune Maritime Leasing has funded or committed to fund 50 shipping assets for a total amount of more than $650 million. Finally, we continue to have a long uninterrupted dividend track record. Moving to Slide 7, the last slide. Charter rates in the containership market remain at firm levels. The idle fleet remains at low levels at about 0.9%, indicating a fully employed market. With that, we can conclude our presentation, and we can now take questions. Thank you. Operator, we can take questions now.
分析師問答
The first question comes from Omar Nokta with Jefferies.
Just a couple from me. Obviously, just looking at your chartering activity, you've been able to add a good amount of visibility forward fixing several ships. It looks like maybe an average of at least 2 years or so from where they were before. But I just wanted to get your sense in terms of how chartering activity in general developed here over the past couple of months because you've had obviously a very volatile year for the underlying freight market where there's been huge swings upwards and downwards for freight rates. They bottomed about a month ago. Now they've jumped. I just want to get a sense from you, given how active you are in the chartering market, have you noticed any shift in liner appetite? Have things changed here over the past several weeks? Any kind of color you can give on developments on charter would be great.
First of all, regarding the box rates, you are right. Last week and last month in general, box rates have been up, especially on the U.S. West Coast trade route. Regarding the charter market, there is a shortage of ships, especially larger vessels. So whichever ships come out, there are definitely candidates to have them chartered in. The market remains at very healthy levels. There is demand and ships are easily absorbed. The main indicator one needs to look at is the idle vessels: if you back out any dry dockings or technical issues, this is less than 1%. So less than 1% idle fleet means that practically we have a fully employed market. Charter rates, in general, are holding up very well. Whether this will continue or not, and for how long, it's hard to say because we have a series of geopolitical events that might affect it. But for the time being, it is a healthy market. Liners are generally eager to charter in vessels. You can argue that they may not want to go for longer periods in general compared to the past. But you still see 2- or 3-year time charters for secondhand vessels on a forward basis. In that respect, considering that the supply of vessels is quite thin, the fundamentals are quite tight and quite positive.
And then maybe just a follow-up. I wanted to ask about the secondhand acquisition you mentioned. You bought the 2006-built 6,000 TEU vessel. That looks like it's on contract to Maersk. Could you talk about how that came about? Was this a direct acquisition from Maersk with a charter back to them? Are there more opportunities like that, do you think, in the sale and purchase market?
Yes. I think this vessel has been chartered back to Maersk. This is a structured sale and leaseback deal. There may be more opportunities like that in the future. We haven't come across anything else yet that would make sense, but there may be. As you've seen, we have been focusing on newbuildings for the 3,100 TEU ships; we had concluded 4 previously announced in the Q2 results, and we have added 2 more options now. Those are going to be delivered in Q1 2028. On a back-to-back basis, we have arranged the financing for the first 4 and we are closing the commitment of the financing for the last 2, which also makes sense. We are generally active, so either secondhand or newbuildings, assuming that we feel comfortable with the residual value risk of our equity, we will be quite active.
The next question is from Climent Molins with Value Investors.
Following up on Omar's question on the first one. Could you talk a bit about whether you believe the recent increase in freight rates is sustainable? It seems it was mostly a function of front running as tensions between the U.S. and China increased, but those have been lowered since. So how do you think about the trade-off of having more visibility versus the front running?
For the freight rates, the box rates, this is something that could also be directly addressed to the liners who may have better visibility. I agree with you that last week and last month, freight rates pushed up because of front running, may have to do with the pushback of the port fees, and rearrangement of schedules of the liner companies. To what extent these are medium- or long-term sustainable, I cannot comment on that. If you look historically at the 3- or 6-month or 1-year box rates, they have been on a negative trend. I cannot forecast where box rates are going to be starting from today over the next 3 to 6 months. To some extent, liner companies have greater visibility on that.
Yes, makes sense. No one can really forecast that. And also following up on Omar's second question, it seems the Maersk Puelo is fully committed until next October, but Maersk has options to extend employment until 2031. Could you talk about how likely those are to be exercised given the rate?
Okay. I'm afraid these are charterer option risks. As mentioned, it's up to the charterer to have them exercised. I cannot forecast what a third party will do. Market levels will dictate whether the charterer will take those options or not. On a committed basis, you are right, this is a 1-year charter. From our side, we have run the numbers conservatively, factoring in this 1-year time charter period. After that, it's up to the charterer to decide based on its needs, market rates, and cargo demand whether those options one by one will be exercised.
This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Gregory Zikos for any closing remarks.
Yes. Thank you for dialing in today and for your interest in Costamare Inc. We are looking forward to speaking with you again during the Q4 and year-end results call. Thank you. Operator, I think we have concluded.
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.
Thank you.