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StealthGas Inc. Reports Second Quarter and Six Months 2009 Financial and Operating Results |
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Friday, 21 August 2009 |
 StealthGas Inc., a ship-owning company primarily serving the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sector of the international shipping industry, announced yesterday its unaudited financial and operating results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2009.
Second Quarter 2009 Results: For the three months ended June 30, 2009, voyage revenues amounted to $27.1 million, a decrease of $1.4 million or 4.9%, compared to voyage revenues of $28.5 million for the three months ended June 30, 2008. Net income for the three months
ended June 30, 2009 was $6.5 million or $0.29 per share, a decrease of
$2.9 million, from net income of $9.4 million or $0.42 for the three
months ended June 30, 2008. Net income for the three months ended June
30, 2009, excluding the $0.8 million loss on the sale of a vessel, was
$7.3 million or $0.33 per share, whereas there were no vessel sales in
the same quarter of 2008.
The decline in net income is mainly
attributable to lower revenues due to an increase in the number of idle
days where vessels were unemployed and/or lower charter rates being
obtained in the spot market. Together with increased costs, mainly in
voyage expenses as a consequence of six more ships operating in the
spot market, compared to the same quarter in 2008.
For the three
months ended June 30, 2009, the Company had a $0.5 million realized
cash loss and a $3.2 million unrealized non-cash profit on interest
rate swap arrangements and foreign currency hedging arrangements. This
compares to an unrealized non-cash profit on interest rate swap
arrangements of $1.8 million for the three months ended June 30, 2008.
Voyage
and operating expenses for the three months ended June 30, 2009 were
$2.1 million and $9.8 million respectively compared to $1.3 million and
$7.9 million for the three months ended June 30, 2008; these increases
were due primarily to the increased level of spot market activity with
743 spot voyage days in the second quarter of 2009 compared to just 77
spot voyage days in the same period last year. Under spot voyage
charters we are responsible for all voyage expenses including fuel,
port and canal fees. Net income was also affected by increased
depreciation expenses as there was an average of three more vessels in
the Company's fleet in the second quarter of 2009 compared to the same
period last year.
Basic and diluted earnings per share were $0.29
for the three months ended June 30, 2009 as compared to basic and
diluted earnings per share of $0.42 for the three months ended June 30,
2008.
Adjusted EBITDA for the three months ended June 30, 2009 was
$14.6 million, a decrease of $3.0 million, or 17.1% from $17.6 million
for the three months ended June 30, 2008. A reconciliation of Adjusted
EBITDA to Net Income and to Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities
is set forth below.
Before the non-cash items and the loss
attributable to the sale of a vessel described above, net income was
$4.1 million, or $0.18 per share for the three months ended June 30,
2009, as compared to $7.6 million, or $0.35 per share, for the three
months ended June 30, 2008, a decrease of $3.5 million or 46.1%.
An
average of 41.6 vessels were owned by the Company in the three months
ended June 30, 2009, earning an average time-charter equivalent rate of
approximately $6,638 per day as compared to 38.0 vessels, earning an
average time-charter equivalent rate of $7,909 per day for the same
period of 2008.
First Half 2009 Results
For the six months
ended June 30, 2009, voyage revenues amounted to $56.3 million and net
income was $6.7 million, an increase of $0.8 million, or 1.4%, and a
decrease of $10.2 million, or 60.4%, respectively, from voyage revenues
of $55.5 million and net income of $16.9 million for the six months
ended June 30, 2008. For the six months ended June 30, 2009 net income
included a loss on the sale of vessels of $0.8 million compared to a
profit of $1.7 million on the sale of vessels in the same period in
2008. Net income for the six months ended June 30, 2009 net of the loss
on the sale of vessels was $7.5 million compared to $15.2 million for
the same period in 2008, excluding the gain of $1.7 million on the sale
of vessels in that period.
Basic and diluted earnings per share
were $0.30 for the six months ended June 30, 2009 as compared to basic
and diluted earnings per share of $0.76 for the six months ended June
30, 2008.
For the six months ended June 30, 2009, the Company had
a $1.6 million realized cash loss and a $3.0 million unrealized
non-cash loss on interest rate swap arrangements and foreign currency
hedging arrangements. This compares to an unrealized non-cash loss on
interest rate swap arrangements of $0.5 million for the six months
ended June 30, 2008.
Adjusted EBITDA for the six months ended June
30, 2009 was $23.2 million, a decrease of $8.9 million, or 27.7%, from
$32.1 million for the six months ended June 30, 2008. A reconciliation
of Adjusted EBITDA to Net Income and to Net Cash provided by operating
activities is set forth below.
Before non-cash items and the loss
attributable to the sale of vessels described above net income was
$10.5 million or $0.47 per share for the six months ended June 30,
2009, as compared to $15.7 million, or $0.71 per share for the six
months ended June 30, 2008, a decrease of $5.2 million or 33.1%
excluding the gain on the sale of vessels in that period.
An
average of 41.2 vessels were owned by the Company in the six months
ended June 30, 2009, earning an average time-charter equivalent rate of
approximately $6,986 per day as compared to 37.9 vessels, earning an
average time-charter equivalent rate of $7,781 per day for the same
period of 2008.
CEO Harry Vafias commented:
"The second
quarter of this year has, as I predicted it would be in our first
quarter earnings release, proved to be a challenging one. However
despite these challenges I am pleased to report that we remain
profitable, in a healthy cash position, and, as the company is
currently structured, without any current expectation of needing to
raise any dilutive capital.
"We believe the small LPG market is
healthier than the three major shipping segments both from a new
buildings order book standpoint and the stability of its freight rates.
Apart from the delivery of the Stealth Argentina in November of this
year, StealthGas has no major scheduled capital expenditures until
2011.
"I am also pleased to report that in the past few weeks we
have seen some recovery in charterer's confidence and we have managed
to secure profitable period business to highly reputable charterers as
we outlined in our press release of the 4th August. I am pleased to say
that all our charterers continue to fulfil their obligations to us. We
currently have 71% of our available charter days fixed for the
remainder of 2009 and approximately 40% already under contract for
2010.
"We are continuing to strive to control our operating
expenses and our net income break even level fell during the first half
of this year compared to the first six months of 2008. In my view the
second half of 2009 will continue to be challenging, although as we
move into the colder part of this year and into early 2010 this may
somewhat aid our performance, to the extent we continue to have a
significant number of our vessels in the spot market.
"Our focus
continues to be running our ships as efficiently as possible and, where
we can, fixing them on period charter to reliable charterers, so as to
be able to secure regular and sustainable cash flows to meet our
obligations in a timely manner."
CFO Andrew Simmons commented:
"We
continue to have a soundly structured financial base with net debt to
capitalization remaining conservative at 44.4% as at June 30, 2009.
Also as evidenced by the sale price achieved in the second quarter of
2009 for the Gas Sophie, the values of our core LPG fleet continue to
hold up very well compared to many other sectors of shipping. The debt
to market value of our entire fleet in the water as at the 30th June
2009 stood at 52.9% which we believe places StealthGas in the upper
echelon, on a comparative basis, with other U.S. listed shipping
companies.
"Following the delivery of the Alpine Endurance in July
we now only have one further vessel for delivery in November 2009 which
is to be financed by a committed facility from one of our core lenders.
Thereafter apart from some $11.0 million of yard installment payments
due on our LPG new buildings during 2010 and regularly scheduled dry
docking expenses, which we expect to meet comfortably from our
internally generated cash resources, we have no further significant
funding requirements or capital expenditures until early 2011."
Quarterly Dividend:
At today's meeting, the Company's Board of Directors decided to continue the suspension of dividend payments to shareholders.
Source: StealthGas
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