Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:SHIP) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript
Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:SHIP) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript March 15, 2024
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Operator: Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp. Conference Call on the Fourth Quarter and Year Ended December 31, 2023 Financial Results. We have with us today Mr. Stamatis Tsantanis, Chairman and CEO; and Mr. Stavros Gyftakis, Chief Financial Officer of Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that this conference call is being recorded today, Friday, March 14, 2024. The archived webcast of the conference call will soon be made available on the Seanergy website, www.seanergymaritime.com. To access today’s presentation and listen to the archive audio file visit the seanergy website following the webcast and presentation section and on the investor relations page.
Please now turn to slide two of the presentation. Many of the remarks today contain forward-looking statements based on current expectations. Actual results may differ materially from the results projected from those forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning factors that can cause the actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements is contained in the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2023 earnings release, which is available on the Seanergy website again, www.seanergymaritime.com. I would now like to turn the conference over to one of your speakers today, the Chairman and CEO of the company, Mr. Stamatis Tsantanis. Please go ahead, sir.
Stamatis Tsantanis: Thank you, operator. Hello. I would like to welcome everyone to our conference call. Today, we are presenting the financial results for the fourth quarter and full year period of 2023, together with an update on our main corporate developments. Let’s move into slide number three. 2023 was one of the most volatile year for the Capesize market. We experienced a wild range of freight rates that bottomed at 2,200 per day in Q1 and peaked at almost $55,000 a day in Q4. Despite this extreme volatility Seanergy was very well placed to take advantage of a stronger rebound in the Capesize market that transpired in the fourth quarter of 2023. As a result, we delivered another profitable year building on our robust commercial performance, our hedging activities and the investments we have made in improving our vessels efficiency over the years.
In doing so, we have successfully navigated the extreme freight rate and stability and achieved a healthy mix of fleet growth, accretion and cash dividends. We ended the fourth quarter of 2023 with a net income of approximately $10.8 million, which compares very favorably with a net income of $0.5 million reported in the fourth quarter of 2022. Following a strong 2023 fourth quarter, the Capesize market is currently undergoing the best first quarter since 2011. This is a result of higher raw material trade flows, limited fleet growth over the past year, as well as disruptions in key areas. Consistent with our commitment to reward our shareholders, our board of directors declared a total cash dividend of $0.10 per share consisting of a special dividend of $0.075 on top of the $0.025 regular dividend for the quarter.
This results in a dividend payout ratio exceeding 100% for the full year period of 2023. While we're currently evaluating our options to further increase capital returns to our shareholders, provided that the underlying conditions allow. In addition to our cash dividend distributions, since 2023, we have completed 2.5 million in share buybacks, or about 2% of our shares outstanding at an average price of $5.12, which is about 44% lower than the current market price. Additionally, in December we repaid the 3.2 million outstanding balance under our convertible note, addressing a long-standing legacy overhang over our share price while simplifying our capital structure. Apart from this, during 2023 we refinanced approximately 53.8 million of indebtedness and following these transactions, there are no other debt maturities until the second quarter of 2025.
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