Star Bulk: Record–high profitability in 2021

Star Bulk, a global shipping company focusing on the transportation of dry bulk cargoes, announced its unaudited financial and operating results for the fourth quarter of 2021.

Financial Highlights

(1) Adjusted Net income / (loss) and Adjusted earnings / (loss) per share basic and diluted are non-GAAP measures. Please see the table at the end of this release for a reconciliation to Net income / (loss), which is the most directly comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“ U.S. GAAP”), as well as for the definition of each measure.
(2) EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are non-GAAP measures. Please see the table at the end of this release for a reconciliation of EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA to Net Cash Provided by / (Used in) Operating Activities, which is the most directly comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP as well as for the definition of each measure. To derive Adjusted EBITDA from EBITDA, we exclude non-cash gains / (losses).
(3) Daily Time Charter Equivalent Rate (“TCE”) and TCE Revenues are non-GAAP measures. Please see the table at the end of this release for a reconciliation to Voyage Revenues, which is the most directly comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP, as well as for the definition of each measure.
(4) Daily OPEX per vessel is calculated by dividing vessel operating expenses by Ownership days (defined below). Daily OPEX per vessel (which excludes non-recurring expenses) is calculated by dividing vessel operating expenses minus any non-recurring items (such as, increased costs due to the COVID-19 pandemic or pre-delivery expenses for each vessel at acquisition, if any) by Ownership days. In the future we may incur expenses that are the same as or similar to certain non-recurring expenses that were previously excluded.
(5) Daily Net Cash G&A expenses per vessel is calculated by (1) deducting the Management fee Income (if any), from, and (2) adding the Management fee expense to, the General and Administrative expenses (net of share-based compensation expense and other non-cash charges) and (3) then dividing the result by the sum of Ownership days and Charter-in days. Please see the table at the end of this release for a reconciliation to General and administrative expenses, which is the most directly comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

Petros Pappas, Chief Executive Officer of Star Bulk, commented:

“The favorable market conditions during 2021, enabled the Company to reach record–high profitability. During the fourth quarter, Star Bulk earned net income of $300.2 million, TCE Revenues of $428.0 million and EBITDA of $353.1 million with TCE for the quarter increasing to $37,406/day per vessel. On a full year basis, we managed to have our best year ever, with net income of $680.5 million and EBITDA of $892.0 million.

The increased cash flow from operations helped us further strengthen our balance sheet reaching a current cash balance of $593.7 million, reducing our net debt to $938.8 million. We continue to be committed to our policy of increased shareholder returns, announcing a dividend of $2.00 per share for the fourth quarter. For the full year 2021, Star Bulk will have made total distributions to its shareholders of $4.25 per share, demonstrating its ability to take advantage of strong market conditions and pay meaningful returns to its shareholders.

On the ESG front, Star Bulk has participated in the Carbon Disclosure Project (“CDP”) for the 2021 disclosure cycle and has managed to achieve a “Management” level score (B-), the highest score achieved amongst US listed dry bulk companies.

We remain optimistic about the prospects of the dry bulk markets due to promising supply and demand balance for the coming years. Upcoming environmental regulations and continued global economic growth create a favorable picture for the future of the industry.  Star Bulk, has built a solid platform and remains well positioned to take advantage of such continued positive dynamics and reward its shareholders over the long term.”

Recent Developments

Declaration of Dividend
As of December 31, 2021, we owned 128 vessels and our Total Cash Balance was $473.3 million.  Taking into account the Minimum Cash Balance per Vessel as of December 31, 2021 of $2.10 million, on February 16, 2022, pursuant to our dividend policy, our Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $2.00 per share payable on or about March 15, 2022 to all shareholders of record as of March 2, 2022. The ex-dividend date is expected to be March 1, 2022.

Shares Outstanding Update
As of February 16, 2022, we have not sold any common shares under either of our effective at-the-market programs and our number of outstanding shares is 102,294,758.

Vessel Employment Overview

Daily Time Charter Equivalent Rate (“TCE”) is a non-GAAP measure. Please see the table at the end of this release for a reconciliation to Voyage Revenues, which is the most directly comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

For the fourth quarter of 2021 our TCE rate was:
Capesize / Newcastlemax Vessels: $47,219 per day.
Post Panamax / Kamsarmax / Panamax Vessels: $31,763 per day.
Ultramax / Supramax Vessels: $34,024 per day.

For the year ended December, 2021 our TCE rate was:
Capesize / Newcastlemax Vessels: $32,286 per day.
Post Panamax / Kamsarmax / Panamax Vessels: $24,860 per day.
Ultramax / Supramax Vessels: $23,752 per day.

Amounts shown throughout the press release and variations in period–on–period comparisons are derived from the actual unaudited numbers in our books and records. Reference to per share figures below are based on 102,285,188 and 96,983,233 weighted average diluted shares for the fourth quarter of 2021 and 2020, respectively.

Fourth Quarter 2021 and 2020 Results

For the fourth quarter of 2021, we had a net income of $300.2 million, or $2.93 earnings per share, compared to a net income for the fourth quarter of 2020 of $27.8 million, or $0.29 earnings per share.

Adjusted net income, which excludes certain non-cash items, was $302.4 million, or $2.96 earnings per share, for the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to an adjusted net income for the fourth quarter of 2020 of $29.5 million, or $0.30 earnings per share.

Net cash provided by operating activities for the fourth quarter of 2021 was $296.4 million, compared to $58.1 million for the fourth quarter of 2020. Adjusted EBITDA, which excludes certain non-cash items, was $355.1 million for the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to $81.5 million for the fourth quarter of 2020.

Voyage revenues for the fourth quarter of 2021 increased to $499.9 million from $186.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2020 which is indicative of the significantly improved market conditions prevailing during the current period. Time charter equivalent revenues (“TCE Revenues”)¹ were $428.0 million for the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to $140.5 million for the fourth quarter of 2020. TCE rate for the fourth quarter of 2021 was $37,406 compared to $13,415 for the fourth quarter of 2020.

For the fourth quarters of 2021 and 2020, vessel operating expenses were $54.2 million and $46.1 million, respectively. Vessel operating expenses for the fourth quarter of 2021 included pre-delivery and pre-joining expenses of $0.1 million and additional crew expenses related to the increased number and cost of crew changes performed during the period as a result of COVID-19 restrictions estimated to be $2.6 million. Vessel operating expenses for the fourth quarter of 2020 included COVID-19 related expenses of $1.6 million. Excluding non-recurring expenses such as pre-delivery and pre-joining expenses and the increased costs due to COVID-19, our daily operating expenses per vessel for the fourth quarters of 2021 and 2020 were $4,373 and $4,169, respectively.

General and administrative expenses for the fourth quarters of 2021 and 2020 were $9.3 million and $7.6 million, respectively and was mainly increased due to the increase of the share-based compensation expense to $1.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2021 from $0.3 million in the corresponding period of 2020. Vessel management fees for the fourth quarters of 2021 and 2020 were $4.9 million and $4.6 million, respectively. Our daily net cash general and administrative expenses per vessel (including management fees and excluding share-based compensation and other non-cash charges) for the fourth quarters of 2021 and 2020 were $1,042 and $1,068, respectively.

Interest and finance costs net of interest and other income/(loss) for the fourth quarters of 2021 and 2020 were $13.1 million and $15.2 million, respectively. This decrease is primarily attributable to the decline in the average interest rate on our outstanding indebtedness, mainly driven by the refinancing of certain of our debt agreements and the redemption of our outstanding 8.30% Senior Notes in July 2021 , the interest rate swap agreements that we entered into in 2020 and 2021 and the lower LIBOR rates during the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, as well as the decrease in the weighted average outstanding debt balance during the corresponding periods.

Unaudited Consolidated Statement of Operations

Unaudited Consolidated Condensed Balance Sheet Data

Unaudited Consolidated Condensed Cash Flow Data

Summary of Selected Data

(1) Average number of vessels is the number of vessels that constituted our owned fleet for the relevant period, as measured by the sum of the number of days each operating vessel was a part of our owned fleet during the period divided by the number of calendar days in that period.
(2) As of the last day of the periods reported.
(3) Average age of our operational fleet is calculated as of the end of each period.
(4) Ownership days are the total calendar days each vessel in the fleet was owned by us for the relevant period, including vessels subject to sale and leaseback transactions and finance leases.
(5) Available days for the fleet are the Ownership days after subtracting off-hire days for major repairs, dry docking or special or intermediate surveys and for vessels’ improvements and upgrades. The available days for each period presented were also decreased by off-hire days relating to disruptions in connection with crew changes as a result of COVID-19. Our method of computing Available Days may not necessarily be comparable to Available Days of other companies due to differences in methods of calculation.
(6) Charter-in days are the total days that we charter-in vessels, not owned by us.
(7) Time charter equivalent rate represents the weighted average daily TCE rates of our operating fleet (including owned fleet and fleet under charter-in arrangements). TCE rate is a measure of the average daily net revenue performance of our vessels. Our method of calculating TCE rate is determined by dividing (a) TCE Revenues, which consists of voyage revenues net of voyage expenses, charter-in hire expense, amortization of fair value of above/below market acquired time charter agreements, if any, as well as adjusted for the impact of realized gain/(loss) on forward freight agreements (“FFAs”) and bunker swaps by (b) Available days for the relevant time period. Available days do not include the Charter-in days as per the relevant definitions provided above. Voyage expenses primarily consist of port, canal and fuel costs that are unique to a particular voyage, which would otherwise be paid by the charterer under a time charter contract, as well as commissions. In the calculation of TCE Revenues, we also include the realized gain/(loss) on FFAs and bunker swaps as we believe that this method better reflects the chartering result of our fleet and is more comparable to the method used by our peers. TCE Revenues and TCE rate, which are non-GAAP measures, provide additional meaningful information in conjunction with voyage revenues, the most directly comparable GAAP measure, because they assist our management in making decisions regarding the deployment and use of our vessels and because we believe that they provide useful information to investors regarding our financial performance. TCE rate is a standard shipping industry performance measure used primarily to compare period-to-period changes in a shipping company’s performance despite changes in the mix of charter types (i.e., voyage charters, time charters, bareboat charters and pool arrangements) under which its vessels may be employed between the periods. Our method of computing TCE Revenues and TCE rate may not necessarily be comparable to those of other companies due to differences in methods of calculation. For a detailed calculation please see the table at the end of this release with the reconciliation of Voyage Revenues to TCE.
(8) Daily OPEX per vessel is calculated by dividing vessel operating expenses by Ownership days. Daily OPEX per vessel (excluding non- recurring expenses) is calculated by dividing vessel operating expenses minus any non-recurring expenses or other additional expenses due to conditions outside of the Company’s control (such as pre-delivery expenses for each vessel at acquisition or increased costs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, if any) by Ownership days. We exclude non-recurring expenses that may occur occasionally from our Daily OPEX per vessel, since these generally represent items that we would not anticipate occurring as part of our normal business on a regular basis. We believe that Daily OPEX per vessel (excluding non-recurring expenses) is a useful measure for our management and investors for period to period comparison with respect to our operating cost performance since such measure eliminates the effects of non-recurring items which may vary from period to period, are not part of our daily business and derive from reasons unrelated to overall operating performance. In the future we may incur expenses that are the same as or similar to certain non-recurring expenses that were previously excluded. Vessel operating expenses for the twelve month periods ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 included additional crew expenses related to the increased number and cost of crew changes performed during the period as a result of COVID-19 restrictions imposed in 2020 estimated to be $8.4 million and $3.5 million, respectively, while vessel operating expenses for the twelve month period ended December 31, 2021 included pre-delivery and pre-joining expenses of $3.1 million (nil in 2020).
(9) Please see the table at the end of this release for the reconciliation to General and administrative expenses, the most directly comparable GAAP measure. We believe that Daily Net Cash G&A expenses per vessel is a useful measure for our management and investors for period to period comparison with respect to our financial performance since such measure eliminates the effects of non-cash items which may vary from period to period, are not part of our daily business and derive from reasons unrelated to overall operating performance.

EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Reconciliation

We include EBITDA herein since it is a basis upon which we assess our liquidity position. It is also used by our lenders as a measure of our compliance with certain loan covenants and we believe that it presents useful information to investors regarding our ability to service and/or incur indebtedness.

To derive Adjusted EBITDA from EBITDA, we exclude non-cash gains/(losses) such as those related to sale of vessels, share based compensation expense, the write-off of the unamortized fair value of above/below market acquired time charters, impairment loss, loss from bad debt, change in fair value of forward freight agreements and bunker swaps and the equity in income/(loss) of investee and other non-cash charges, if any, which may vary from period to period and for different companies and because these items do not reflect operational cash inflows and outflows of our fleet.

EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA do not represent and should not be considered as alternatives to cash flow from operating activities or net income, as determined by United States generally accepted accounting principles, or U.S. GAAP. Our method of computing EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA may not necessarily be comparable to other similarly titled captions of other companies due to differences in methods of calculation.

The following table reconciles net cash provided by operating activities to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA:

Net income/(Loss) and Adjusted Net income/(Loss) Reconciliation and calculation of Adjusted Earnings/(Loss) Per Share

To derive Adjusted Net Income/(Loss) and Adjusted Earnings/(Loss) Per Share from Net Income/(Loss), we exclude non-cash items, as provided in the table below. We believe that Adjusted Net Income/(Loss) and Adjusted Earnings/(Loss) Per Share assist our management and investors by increasing the comparability of our performance from period to period since each such measure eliminates the effects of such non-cash items as gain/(loss) on sale of assets, unrealized gain/(loss) on derivatives, impairment loss and other items which may vary from year to year, for reasons unrelated to overall operating performance. In addition, we believe that the presentation of the respective measure provides investors with supplemental data relating to our results of operations, and therefore, with a more complete understanding of factors affecting our business than with GAAP measures alone. Our method of computing Adjusted Net Income/(Loss) and Adjusted Earnings/ (Loss) Per Share may not necessarily be comparable to other similarly titled captions of other companies due to differences in methods of calculation.

The following table reconciles Net income / (loss) to Adjusted Net income / (loss):

Voyage Revenues to Daily Time Charter Equivalent (“TCE”) Reconciliation

Daily Net Cash G&A expenses per vessel Reconciliation