Danaos Corporation, one of the world’s largest independent owners of container vessels and drybulk vessels, reported unaudited results for the period ended December 31, 2024.
Highlights for the Fourth Quarter and Year Ended December 31, 2024:
| Financial SummaryThree Months Ended December 31, 2024 and Three Months Ended December 31, 2023 Unaudited(Expressed in thousands of United States dollars, except as otherwise stated) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Three Months Ended | Three Months Ended | |||||||||||||||||
| December 31, 2024 | December 31, 2023 | |||||||||||||||||
| Financial & Operating Metrics | Container Vessels | Drybulk Vessels | Other | Total | Container Vessels | Drybulk Vessels | Other | Total | ||||||||||
| Operating Revenues | $237,510 | $20,669 | – | $258,179 | $238,924 | $10,391 | – | $249,315 | ||||||||||
| Voyage Expenses, excl. commissions | $925 | $(4,960) | – | $(4,035) | $(437) | $(6,446) | – | $(6,883) | ||||||||||
| Time Charter Equivalent Revenues (1) | $238,435 | $15,709 | – | $254,144 | $238,487 | $3,945 | – | $242,432 | ||||||||||
| Net income/(loss) | $121,985 | $1,740 | $(33,298) | $90,427 | $130,996 | $(1,851) | $20,776 | $149,921 | ||||||||||
| Adjusted net income / (loss) (2) | $128,697 | $2,300 | $2,276 | $133,273 | $137,582 | $(1,631) | $14 | $135,965 | ||||||||||
| Earnings per share, basic | $4.72 | $7.73 | ||||||||||||||||
| Earnings per share, diluted | $4.70 | $7.70 | ||||||||||||||||
| Adjusted earnings per share, diluted (2) | $6.93 | $6.99 | ||||||||||||||||
| Operating Days | 6,467 | 775 | – | 6,109 | 337 | – | ||||||||||||
| Time Charter Equivalent $/day (1) | $36,869 | $20,270 | – | $39,039 | $11,706 | – | ||||||||||||
| Ownership days | 6,706 | 920 | – | 6,256 | 412 | – | ||||||||||||
| Average number of vessels | 72.9 | 10.0 | – | 68.0 | 4.5 | – | ||||||||||||
| Fleet Utilization | 96.4 % | 84.2 % | – | 97.7 % | 81.8 % | – | ||||||||||||
| Adjusted EBITDA (2) | $180,700 | $6,775 | $2,252 | $189,727 | $173,083 | $(488) | $14 | $172,609 | ||||||||||
| Consolidated Balance Sheet& Leverage Metrics | As of December 31,2024 | As of December 31, 2023 | ||||||||||||||||
| Cash and cash equivalents | $453,384 | $271,809 | ||||||||||||||||
| Availability under Revolving Credit Facility | $292,500 | $337,500 | ||||||||||||||||
| Marketable securities(3) | $60,850 | $86,029 | ||||||||||||||||
| Total cash liquidity & marketable securities(4) | $806,734 | $695,338 | ||||||||||||||||
| Debt, gross of deferred finance costs | $744,546 | $410,516 | ||||||||||||||||
| Net Debt (5) | $291,162 | $138,707 | ||||||||||||||||
| LTM Adjusted EBITDA (6) | $722,615 | $707,002 | ||||||||||||||||
| Net Debt / LTM Adjusted EBITDA | 0.40x | 0.20x | ||||||||||||||||
| 1. | Time charter equivalent revenues and time charter equivalent US$/day are non-GAAP measures. Refer to the reconciliation provided in the appendix. |
| 2. | Adjusted net income/(loss), adjusted earnings per share and adjusted EBITDA are non-GAAP measures. Refer to the reconciliation of net income to adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share; and net income to adjusted EBITDA provided below. |
| 3. | Marketable securities refer to fair value of 4,070,214 shares of common stock of SBLK on December 31, 2024 and 1,552,865 shares of common stock of EGLE on December 31, 2023. |
| 4. | Total cash liquidity & marketable securities includes: (i) cash and cash equivalents, (ii) availability under our Revolving Credit Facility and (iii) marketable securities. |
| 5. | Net Debt is defined as total debt gross of deferred finance costs less cash and cash equivalents |
| 6. | Last twelve months Adjusted EBITDA. Refer to the reconciliation provided below. |
For management purposes, the Company is organized based on operating revenues generated from container vessels and dry-bulk vessels and has two reporting segments: (1) a container vessels segment and (2) a dry-bulk vessels segment. The Company measures segment performance based on net income. Items included in the applicable segment’s net income are directly allocated to the extent that the items are directly or indirectly attributable to the segments. With regards to the items that are allocated by indirect calculations, their allocation is commensurate to the utilization of key resources. The Other column includes components that are not allocated to any of the Company’s reportable segments and includes investments in an affiliate accounted for using the equity method of accounting and investments in marketable securities.
| Financial SummaryYear Ended December 31, 2024 and Year Ended December 31, 2023 Unaudited(Expressed in thousands of United States dollars, except as otherwise stated) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Year Ended | Year Ended | |||||||||||||||||||
| December 31, 2024 | December 31, 2023 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Financial & Operating Metrics | Container Vessels | Drybulk Vessels | Other | Total | Container Vessels | Drybulk Vessels | Other | Total | ||||||||||||
| Operating Revenues | $937,077 | $77,033 | – | $1,014,110 | $963,192 | $10,391 | – | $973,583 | ||||||||||||
| Voyage Expenses, excl. commissions | $746 | $(27,075) | – | $(26,329) | $(1,662) | $(6,446) | – | $(8,108) | ||||||||||||
| Time Charter Equivalent Revenues (1) | $937,823 | $49,958 | – | $987,781 | $961,530 | $3,945 | – | $965,475 | ||||||||||||
| Net income/(loss) | $518,129 | $4,429 | $(17,485) | $505,073 | $563,279 | $(1,910) | $14,930 | $576,299 | ||||||||||||
| Adjusted net income / (loss) (2) | $519,759 | $4,989 | $7,694 | $532,442 | $572,215 | $(1,690) | $(2,937) | $567,588 | ||||||||||||
| Earnings per share, basic | $26.15 | $28.99 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Earnings per share, diluted | $26.05 | $28.95 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Adjusted earnings per share, diluted (2) | $27.47 | $28.52 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Operating Days | 24,961 | 2,753 | – | 24,286 | 337 | – | ||||||||||||||
| Time Charter Equivalent $/day (1) | $37,572 | $18,147 | – | $39,592 | $11,706 | – | ||||||||||||||
| Ownership days | 25,684 | 3,164 | – | 24,850 | 417 | – | ||||||||||||||
| Average number of vessels | 70.2 | 8.6 | – | 68.1 | 1.1 | – | ||||||||||||||
| Fleet Utilization | 97.2 % | 87.0 % | – | 97.7 % | 80.8 % | – | ||||||||||||||
| Adjusted EBITDA (2) | $697,463 | $17,505 | $7,647 | $722,615 | $710,476 | $(537) | $(2,937) | $707,002 | ||||||||||||
| 1. | Time charter equivalent revenues and time charter equivalent US$/day are non-GAAP measures. Refer to the reconciliation provided in the appendix. |
| 2. | Adjusted net income/(loss), adjusted earnings per share and adjusted EBITDA are non-GAAP measures. Refer to the reconciliation of net income to adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share; and net income to adjusted EBITDA provided below. |
- In December 2024, we added two 9,200 TEU newbuilding containerships to our orderbook, which have expected deliveries in 2027. We took delivery of 6 newbuilding containerships in 2024 and 1 in January 2025.
- In February 2025, we entered into a syndicated loan facility agreement for an amount of up to $850 million, to finance all of our remaining newbuilding container vessels, including the two additional recent orders, with deliveries from 2026 through 2028.
- Our remaining orderbook currently consists of a further 15 newbuilding containership vessels with an aggregate capacity of 128,220 TEU with expected deliveries of one vessel in 2025, three vessels in 2026, nine vessels in 2027 and two vessels in 2028. All the vessels in our orderbook are designed with the latest eco characteristics, will be methanol fuel ready, fitted with open loop scrubbers and Alternative Maritime Power (AMP) units and will be built in accordance with the latest requirements of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in relation to Tier III emission standards and Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) Phase III.
- We have secured multi-year charter arrangements for 13 of the remaining 15 newbuilding vessels orderbook, with an average charter duration of approximately 5.1 years weighted by aggregate contracted charter hire.
- Over the past three months, we added approximately $336 million to our contracted revenue backlog through a combination of new charters and charter extensions for 11 of our container vessels and container vessels newbuildings.
- As a result, total contracted cash operating revenues, on the basis of concluded charter contracts through the date of this release, currently stand at $3.4 billion, including newbuildings. The remaining average contracted charter duration for our containership fleet is 3.7 years, weighted by aggregate contracted charter hire.
- Contracted operating days charter coverage for our container vessel fleet is currently 97% for 2025 and 79% for 2026. This includes newbuildings based on their scheduled delivery dates.
- We took delivery of all of our contracted capesize drybulk carriers by taking delivery of two vessels in the second quarter of 2024 and one vessel in July 2024. As a result, our capesize drybulk fleet currently stands at 10 vessels with an aggregate capacity of approximately 1.8 million DWT.
- As of the date of this release, Danaos has repurchased a total of 2,458,024 shares of its common stock in the open market for $168.8 million under its $200 million authorized share repurchase program that was originally introduced in June 2022 and was upsized in November 2023.
- Danaos has declared a dividend of $0.85 per share of common stock for the fourth quarter of 2024. The dividend is payable on March 5, 2025, to stockholders of record as of February 24, 2025.
Danaos’ CEO Dr. John Coustas commented:
“The world is entering uncharted territory and any near-term predictions about the direction of shipping markets are inherently unreliable. The tariff war is bound to generate disruptions, which have historically benefited shipping. However, an economic slowdown might negate these benefits.
The dry bulk market continues to suffer from ongoing malaise due to the pace of the recovery of the Chinese economy, which has not shown signs of accelerating. The delivery of new tonnage starting this year will add to this weakness, particularly in the panamax and smaller segments, where the orderbook is concentrated. The capesize segment, where our fleet is concentrated, continues to have an orderbook that remains at historically low levels.
The container charter market remains healthy, albeit liners are exhibiting more caution, particularly with respect to more forward dates. While box rates are weakening, they are still much higher than pre-pandemic levels. We will have to wait until after Chinese New Year to gauge the effect of the front-loading of exports that occurred in anticipation of tariffs and the demand pattern in the new trade environment.
Danaos is highly insulated from near-term market uncertainty, with 97% coverage for 2025 and 79% for 2026 at healthy rates, shielding us from market volatility. Our charter backlog of $3.4 billion provides us with a certainty of income and firepower to explore accretive investments. We have chartered 13 out of our 15 newbuildings for five years and have arranged a new $850 million facility from a bank syndicate to fully cover the financing of all vessels on order.
Our profitability remains consistent, and we are using our strong balance sheet to increase dividends, continue our share buyback program, and source opportunities to grow our company for the benefit of our shareholders.
Our strategic focus remains on maintaining a robust financial position, securing long-term contracts for vessels coming off charter, and investing in modern, fuel-efficient container vessels to enhance our competitive position in the market. We are committed to delivering value to our shareholders through prudent financial management and strategic growth initiatives.”