Star Bulk achieves ‘profitable’ first quarter

Key highlights include the following:

• Voyage revenues for the first quarter of 2018 stood at US$121 057, a 86.62% increase compared to the voyage revenue for the same period in 2017 – US$64 866.
• TCE revenues also saw a significant increase on the previous year with US$81 597 for 1Q18 compared with US$49012 for 1Q17.
• Star Bulk’s average number of vessels for 1Q18 stood at 72, which was also up from the 67.3 average in 1Q17.

CEO of Star Bulk, Petros Pappas, commented: “We are happy to report another profitable quarter, especially during the seasonally weak period of the year. We achieved US$81.6 million in TCE Revenues, US$46.4 million in Adjusted EBITDA and US$9.9 million in Net Income for the quarter ended 31 March 2018. Our average TCE for the quarter was $12 586/d per vessel with 100% fleet utilisation, with essentially flat yr/yr average daily Opex and Net Cash G&A expenses per vessel, at US$3991/d and $1101/d respectively. We have been busy on the financing front. We have obtained commitments of US$561 million from ten financing institutions, refinancing almost all of our debt maturities due in 2018 and 2019. Those commitments include competitive financing terms, reducing our interest cost by US$2.4 million per year and pushing out our average debt maturity by 3 years. Finally, our recently announced acquisitions should improve the liquidity of our share and provide economies of scale. At closing of the acquisition of the Songa fleet and our debut in the Oslo Stock Exchange we will be adding hundreds of new Star Bulk shareholders. We are honoured to be adding Raffaele Zagari and Arne Blystad in our board of directors and Herman Billung in our management team upon the completion of the Augustea and Songa transactions.”

Read the article online at: https://www.drybulkmagazine.com/shipping/13062018/star-bulk-achieves-profitable-first-quarter/