Golden Ocean Group Limited (NASDAQ:GOGL) Q3 2023 Earnings Conference Call November 21, 2023 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Lars-Christian Svensen - Interim CEO

Peder Simonsen - CFO

Conference Call Participants

Sherif Elmaghrabi - BTIG

Omar Nokta - Jefferies

Lars-Christian Svensen

Hi, there. And a very good afternoon from Oslo. My name is Lars-Christian Svensen and I am the Interim CEO of Golden Ocean. Today CFO, Peder Simonsen and I will guide you through our Q3 numbers and update you on recent activities in Golden Ocean and our forward outlook.

Here are highlights for Q3. Our adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter of 2023 ended up at $78.9 million compared to $80.4 million in the second quarter. We delivered a net profit of $28.7 million and earnings per share of $0.14. This compared with net profit of $34.9 million and earnings per share of $0.17 for the second quarter.

Our TCE rates for Capesize and Panamax vessels were $18,200 per day and $15,400 per day, respectively. Combined, a total fleet-wide net TCE of $17,100. For Q4, we have secured a net TCE of $23,045 per day for 79% of the Capesize days and $17,250 per day for 83% of the Panamax days. For Q1, we have secured a net TCE of $21,700 per day for 12% of the Capesize days and $15,600 per day for 23% of the Panamax days.

During Q3, we have also entered into back-to-back agreements to buy and sell the Supramax vessel, which we held as a purchase option. The company expects to recognize the gain from the sale of approximately $6 million upon delivery of the vessel and expected delivery date is before year-end. We also completed the sale and delivery of one of our Panamax vessels to new owners, recognizing a gain from the sale of about $1 million and net cash proceeds of about $7 million. True to the dividend policy, we declared a dividend of $0.10 per share for the third quarter of 2023.

With that, I will pass the word over to Peder.

Peder Simonsen

Thank you, Lars-Christian.

If we move to the - our profit and loss, we delivered a strong commercial performance with Cape TCE rates coming in at $18,200, slightly down from the previous quarter and Panamax is coming in at $15,400 in line with previous quarter

Our total fleet-wide time charter equivalent was $17,100, which was materially unchanged from Q2. We had two ships drydocked in Q3 versus fixed ships in Q2, resulting in approximately 115 days off-hire versus 215 days off-hire in Q2. We have two ships expected to drydocked in Q4, which are expected to complete - be complete by the second half of the quarter. We added just below 550 vessel days compared to Q2 through our new ship deliveries, net of vessel sales in Q3. Our net revenues came in at $156.6 million compared to $154 million in Q2.