Scorpio Tankers Inc. (NYSE: STNG) (“Scorpio Tankers” or the “Company”) today reported its results for the three months and year ended December 31, 2024. The Company also announced that its board of directors (the “Board of Directors”) has declared a quarterly cash dividend on its common shares of $0.40 per share.
Results for the three months ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
For the three months ended December 31, 2024, the Company had net income of $68.6 million, or $1.48 basic and $1.43 diluted earnings per share.
For the three months ended December 31, 2024, the Company had adjusted net income (see Non-IFRS Measures section below) of $30.3 million, or $0.65 basic and $0.63 diluted earnings per share, which excludes from net income (i) a $52.6 million, or $1.13 per basic and $1.09 per diluted share, gain on sales of vessels, (ii) a $13.9 million, or $0.30 per basic and $0.29 per diluted share, fair value loss on financial assets measured at fair value, and (iii) a $0.5 million, or $0.01 per basic and diluted share, write-offs of deferred financing fees and debt extinguishment costs.
For the three months ended December 31, 2023, the Company had net income of $120.9 million, or $2.43 basic and $2.34 diluted earnings per share.
For the three months ended December 31, 2023, the Company had adjusted net income (see Non-IFRS Measures section below) of $142.2 million, or $2.85 basic and $2.75 diluted earnings per share, which excludes from net income (i) a $7.3 million, or $0.15 per basic and $0.14 per diluted share, write-off or acceleration of the amortization of deferred financing fees on certain lease financing obligations and related debt extinguishment costs, (ii) a $4.9 million, or $0.10 per basic and $0.09 per diluted share, gain on the sale of a vessel, (iii) an $8.4 million, or $0.17 per basic and $0.16 per diluted share, acceleration of the amortization of restricted stock awards which was triggered by the departure of the Company’s former CFO in October 2023, and (iv) a $10.5 million, or $0.21 per basic and $0.20 per diluted share, write-off of previously incurred costs related to the options to purchase scrubbers on 11 MR product tankers which expired unexercised.
Results for the year ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
For the year ended December 31, 2024, the Company had net income of $668.8 million, or $13.78 basic and $13.15 diluted earnings per share.
For the year ended December 31, 2024, the Company had adjusted net income (see Non-IFRS Measures section below) of $512.9 million, or $10.57 basic and $10.08 diluted earnings per share, which excludes from net income (i) a $176.5 million, or $3.64 per basic and $3.47 per diluted share, gain on sales of vessels, (ii) a $2.8 million, or $0.06 per basic and diluted share, gain on sale of a vessel within a joint venture, (iii) a $15.0 million, or $0.31 per basic and $0.29 per diluted share, fair value loss on financial assets measured at fair value, and (iv) a $8.5 million, or $0.18 per basic and $0.17 diluted share, write-off or acceleration of the amortization of deferred financing fees related to unscheduled debt and lease payments and debt extinguishment costs on certain lease financing obligations.
For the year ended December 31, 2023, the Company had net income of $546.9 million, or $10.44 basic and $10.03 diluted earnings per share.
For the year ended December 31, 2023, the Company had adjusted net income (see Non-IFRS Measures section below) of $570.3 million, or $10.89 basic and $10.46 diluted earnings per share, which excludes from net income (i) a $16.5 million, or $0.32 per basic and $0.30 per diluted share, write-off or acceleration of the amortization of deferred financing fees on certain lease financing obligations and related debt extinguishment costs, (ii) a $12.0 million, or $0.23 per basic and $0.22 per diluted share, gain on the sale of vessels, (iii) an $8.4 million, or $0.16 per basic and $0.15 per diluted share, acceleration of the amortization of restricted stock awards which was triggered by the departure of the Company’s former CFO in October 2023, and (iv) a $10.5 million, or $0.20 per basic and $0.19 per diluted share, write-off of costs related to the options to purchase scrubbers on 11 MR product tankers which expired unexercised.
Declaration of Dividend
On February 12, 2025, the Company’s Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.40 per common share, with a payment date of March 21, 2025 to all shareholders of record as of March 7, 2025 (the record date). As of February 11, 2025, there were 49,920,042 common shares of the Company outstanding.
Summary of Fourth Quarter 2024 and Other Recent Significant Events
- Below is a summary of the average daily Time Charter Equivalent (“TCE”) revenue (see Non-IFRS Measures section below) and duration of contracted voyages and time charters for the Company’s vessels (both in the pools and outside of the pools) thus far in the first quarter of 2025 as of the date hereof (See footnotes to “Other operating data” table below for the definition of daily TCE revenue):
| Pool and Spot Market | Time Charters Out of the Pool | ||||||||||
| Average Daily TCE Revenue | Expected Revenue Days (1) | % of Days | Average Daily TCE Revenue | Expected Revenue Days (1) | % of Days | ||||||
| LR2 | $ | 29,000 | 2,330 | 60 | % | $ | 30,750 | 880 | 100 | % | |
| MR | $ | 22,000 | 3,600 | 57 | % | $ | 22,500 | 530 | 100 | % | |
| Handymax | $ | 15,600 | 1,200 | 51 | % | N/A | N/A | N/A | |||
(1) Expected Revenue Days are the total number of calendar days in the quarter for each vessel, less the total number of expected off-hire days during the period associated with major repairs or drydockings. Consequently, Expected Revenue Days represent the total number of days the vessel is expected to be available to earn revenue. Idle days, which are days when a vessel is available to earn revenue, yet is not employed, are included in revenue days. The Company uses revenue days to show changes in net vessel revenues between periods.
- Below is a summary of the average daily TCE revenue earned by the Company’s vessels during the fourth quarter of 2024:
| Average Daily TCE Revenue | ||||
| Vessel class | Pool / Spot | Time Charters | ||
| LR2 | $ | 25,594 | $ | 30,803 |
| MR | $ | 19,351 | $ | 22,943 |
| Handymax | $ | 15,487 | N/A | |
- In January 2025, the Company successfully placed $200.0 million of new senior unsecured bonds in the Nordic bond market (the “Unsecured Senior Notes Due 2030”). The Unsecured Senior Notes Due 2030 are due to mature in January 2030 and bear interest at a fixed coupon rate of 7.50% per annum, payable semi-annually in arrears. The net proceeds from the bond issue are expected to be used to redeem the Company’s existing Unsecured Senior Notes Due 2025 and for general corporate purposes.
- In January 2025, the Company gave notice of redemption for the Unsecured Senior Notes Due 2025. The Company expects to redeem the Unsecured Senior Notes Due 2025, which were scheduled to mature on June 30, 2025, in March 2025.
- In January 2025, the Company invested an additional $42.4 million to increase its ownership of common shares of DHT Holdings Inc. (“DHT”), a publicly traded crude tanker shipping company which owns a fleet of 27 Very Large Crude Carriers. The Company owns approximately 7% of the outstanding common shares of DHT as of the date of this press release. This investment reflects the Company’s constructive outlook in this sector.
- In February 2025, the Company executed a revolving credit facility of up to $500.0 million with a group of financial institutions (the “2025 $500.0 Million Revolving Credit Facility”). The 2025 $500.0 Million Revolving Credit Facility is a 100% revolving loan, which has a final maturity of seven years from the signing date and gives the Company the flexibility to draw down or repay the loan during the loan tenor. The 2025 $500.0 Million Revolving Credit Facility bears interest at SOFR plus a margin of 1.85% per annum for any drawn amounts and a commitment fee of 0.74% per annum applies for any undrawn amounts. The 2025 $500.0 Million Revolving Credit Facility is collateralized by 26 product tankers and will amortize/reduce in quarterly installments (starting after the second anniversary of the signing date), with a balloon payment due at maturity.
- During the fourth quarter of 2024, the Company closed on the sale of two 2014-built, scrubber-fitted, MR product tankers, STI San Antonio and STI Texas City, for $42.5 million per vessel, and one 2019-built, scrubber-fitted, LR2 product tanker, STI Lily, for $73.5 million. The Company did not make any debt repayments for the sales of STI San Antonio and STI Texas City as (i) STI San Antonio was replaced by STI Memphis as collateral on the 2023 $225.0 Million Credit Facility and (ii) STI Texas City was released from the collateral package on the 2023 $117.4 Million Credit Facility given the sufficient headroom under the leverage covenant with the six remaining collateralized vessels under the facility. The Company repaid $22.9 million on the 2023 $1.0 Billion Credit Facility prior to the closing of the sale of STI Lily.
- In September 2024, the Company entered into a three-year time charter-out agreement for the 2018-built MR product tanker, STI Jardins, for $29,550 per day. This vessel is not scrubber-fitted and the time charter commenced in October 2024.
Securities Repurchase Program
From October 1, 2024 through February 12, 2025, the Company repurchased 658,125 of its common shares in the open market at an average price of $59.33 per share under the 2023 Securities Repurchase Program. Since April 1, 2024, the Company has repurchased an aggregate of 4,656,189 of its common shares in the open market at an average price of $72.11 per share.
There is $173.5 million available under the 2023 Securities Repurchase Program as of February 12, 2025.
Diluted Weighted Number of Shares
The computation of earnings per share is determined by taking into consideration the potentially dilutive shares arising from the Company’s equity incentive plan. These potentially dilutive shares are excluded from the computation of earnings per share to the extent they are anti-dilutive.
For the three months and year ended December 31, 2024, the Company’s basic weighted average number of shares outstanding were 46,335,812 and 48,544,137, respectively. For the three months and year ended December 31, 2024, the Company’s diluted weighted average number of shares outstanding were 48,020,815 and 50,874,322, respectively, which included the potentially dilutive impact of restricted shares issued under the Company’s equity incentive plan.