Pyxis Tankers Inc., an international pure play product tanker company, announced its unaudited results for the three and six month periods ended June 30, 2022.
Summary
For the three months ended June 30, 2022, our Revenues, net were $16.1 million. For the same period, our time charter equivalent (“TCE”) revenues were $11.3 million, representing an increase of approximately $7.2 million or 173.2% over the comparable period in 2021. Our net income attributable to common shareholders for the three months ended June 30, 2022 was $4.6 million, representing an increase of $6.1 million from a loss of $1.5 million in the comparable period of 2021. For the second quarter of 2022, the income per share was $0.43 basic and $0.38 diluted compared to loss $0.16 (basic and diluted) for the same period in 2021. Our Adjusted EBITDA for the three months ended June 30, 2022 was $7.3 million, which represented an increase of $6.9 million over the comparable period in 2021. Please see “Non-GAAP Measures and Definitions” below.
On May 13, 2022, the Company implemented a one for four reverse stock split with Nasdaq’s intent of complying with the minimum bid price requirement, as further discussed below. The share and per share information for all periods presented has been adjusted to reflect the one for four Reverse Stock Split.
Valentios Valentis, our Chairman and CEO commented:
“We are pleased to report record results of Revenue, net of $16.1 million and Net Income of $4.6 million for our second fiscal quarter in 2022. Starting this spring, historically low inventories of petroleum products coincided with the war in the Ukraine and expanding global demand, especially for transportation fuels, resulted in market dislocation, including arbitrage opportunities, ton-mile expansion of cargoes and substantially higher charter rates for product tankers. We have taken advantage of improving market conditions by continuing to employ our five Eco- MR’s under a mixed chartering strategy of short-term time charters and spot voyages. During the three months ended June 30, 2022, our daily TCE rate more than doubled to $26,270 compared to the same period in 2021. As of August 5th, 56.7% of the available days in Q3, 2022 for our MR’s were booked at an estimated average TCE of $30,500 per vessel, including three vessels contracted under short-term time charter at an average rate of $25,000 and two MR’s employed in the spot market at an average rate of $43,900.
While we continue to have a positive outlook based on the current environment and longer-term sector fundamentals, we do have concerns about the impact of rising global inflation, higher interest rates, possible recession and, of course, the ongoing war. For example, record high prices in mid-June for regular gasoline in the U.S. have subsequently led to an 3.5% decline in consumption by late July and a 13.5% reduction in the average price per gallon at the pump. However, U.S. refineries are currently running at approximately 93% utilization, 1.5 points higher than one year ago, in order to meet seasonal domestic demand and increased exports of diesel to Europe and Latin America.
Tanker values have risen significantly, increasing the value of our vessels, but also making potential acquisitions more expensive. It has become very challenging to develop opportunities for fleet expansion, especially for the purchase of modern eco-efficient MR’s. For example, based on strong near-term charter rate estimates, a leading research firm recently forecasted a further 20% appreciation in the price of a 5 year old MR to $40.2 million by the middle of next year. Consequently, we will continue to be very disciplined in allocating capital for any strategic transaction in order to maximize shareholder value. In the meantime, we expect to continue to use free cash flow to enhance our balance sheet.”
Results for the three months ended June 30, 2021 and 2022
For the three months ended June 30, 2022, we reported Revenues, net of $16.1 million, or 222.1% higher than $5.0 million in the comparable 2021 period. Our net income attributable to common shareholders was $4.6 million, or $0.43 basic and $0.38 diluted income per share, compared to a net loss of $1.5 million, or $0.16 basic and diluted loss per share, for the same period in 2021. The weighted average number of basic share count had increased by 1.3 million shares from the second quarter of 2021 to approximately 10.6 million common shares in the same period of 2022. The average daily MR TCE rate during the second quarter of 2022 was $26,270 or 107% higher than the $12,697 daily MR TCE rate for the same period in 2021, due to improved market conditions. During the second quarter of 2022, two of our MR’s were under short-term charters and three under spot voyages. Operating expenses and vessel management fees were comparatively higher in the first half of 2022 as a net result of the vessel additions in the second half of 2021, the “Pyxis Karteria” and “Pyxis Lamda”, which was offset by the two small tanker sales, the “Northsea Alpha” and “Northsea Beta” which were delivered to their buyer on January 28, 2022, and March 1, 2022, respectively. Our Adjusted EBITDA increased by $6.9 million to $7.3 million for the three months ended June 30, 2022.
Results for the six months ended June 30, 2021 and 2022
For the six months ended June 30, 2022, we reported Revenues, net of $23.0 million, an increase of $12.7 million, or 124.6%, from $10.2 million in the comparable period of 2021 primarily due to higher spot market rates. During the first half of 2022, two of our MR’s were contracted under short-term charters, two were employed in the spot market and one MR vessel contracted under short-term charter for 34 days and employed in the spot market for the rest of the period resulting in an overall MR daily TCE rate for our fleet of $19,814.
Our net income attributable to common shareholders for the six months ended June 30, 2022, was $0.9 million, or $0.09 per share (basic and diluted), compared to a net loss of $3.6 million, or a loss of $0.43 per share (basic and diluted) for the same period in 2021. Higher MR daily TCE rate of $19,814 and lower MR fleet utilization of 84.7% for our MR’s during the six months ended June 30, 2022, were compared to a MR daily TCE rate of $12,718 and MR fleet utilization of 99.3%, respectively, during the same period in 2021. Operating expenses and vessel management fees were comparatively higher in the first half of 2022 as a net result of the vessel additions of the “Pyxis Karteria” and “Pyxis Lamda” in the second half of 2021 offset from the sales of the two small tankers during the first part of 2022. Our Adjusted EBITDA of $6.6 million represented an increase of $5.4 million from $1.2 million for the same six month period in 2021.