Star Bulk Carriers Corp. (NASDAQ:SBLK) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call February 13, 2024 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Simos Spyrou - Co-Chief Financial Officer

Nicos Rescos - Chief Operating Officer

Charis Plakantonaki - Chief Strategy Officer

Petros Pappas - Chief Executive Officer

Hamish Norton - President

Conference Call Participants

Amit Mehrotra - Deutsche Bank

Omar Nokta - Jefferies

Nathan Ho - Bank of America

Operator

Thank you for standing by ladies and gentlemen. And welcome to the Star Bulk Carriers Conference Call on the Fourth Quarter 2023 Financial Results. We have with us Mr. Petros Pappas, Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Hamish Norton, President; Mr. Simos Spyrou; and Mr. Christos Begleris, Co-Chief Financial Officers; Mr. Nicos Rescos, Chief Operating Officer; and Mrs. Charis Plakantonaki, Chief Strategy Officer of the company. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] I must advise you that this conference is being recorded today.

We will now pass the floor over to your speakers today. Mr. Spyrou, please go ahead, Sir.

Simos Spyrou

Thank you, operator. I am Simos Spyrou, Co-Chief Financial Officer of Star Bulk Carriers, and I would like to welcome you to our conference call regarding our financial results for the fourth quarter of 2023. Before we begin, I kindly ask you to take a moment to read the Safe Harbor statement on Slide number 2 of our presentation. In today's presentation, we will go through our Q4 results, financings and share buybacks, a short update on the ED [ph] bulk transaction, fleet development and operations, the latest on the ESG front, and our views on industry fundamentals before opening up for questions.

Let us now turn to Slide number 3 of the presentation for a summary of our fourth quarter 2023 highlights. Net income for the fourth quarter amounted to approximately $40 million and adjusted net income of approximately $64 million. Adjusted EBITDA was $114 million for the quarter. For the fourth quarter as per our existing dividend policy, we declared a dividend per share of $0.45, with record date as of March 12, 2024. Since June 2021, we have returned to shareholders $1.1 billion in dividend distributions, and over $400 million in share buybacks. Our total cost [ph] today stands at $312 million pro forma for the delivery of our four remaining sold vessels and a payment of the respective debt, as well as the bridge facility. Meanwhile, our pro forma total debt stands at approximately $1.121 billion, translating in a pro forma net debt of approximately $800 million.