Navigator Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:NVGS) Q2 2024 Earnings Conference Call August 15, 2024 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Randy Giveans - EVP, IR and Business Development
Mads Peter Zacho - CEO
Gary Chapman - CFO
Oeyvind Lindeman - CCO

Conference Call Participants

Ben Nolan - Stifel
Omar Nokta - Jefferies
Climent Molins - Value Investor's Edge
Kristoffer Barth Skeie - Arctic Securities

Operator

[Abrupt Start]

Randy Giveans

And myself, Randy Giveans, Executive Vice President of Investor Relations and Business Development in North America.

I must advise you that this conference is being recorded today. As we conduct today's presentations, we'll be making various forward-looking statements. These statements include, but are not limited to, the future expectations, plans and prospects from both a financial and operational perspective and are based on management assumptions, forecasts, and expectations as of today's date, August 15, 2024 and are subject to material risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ significantly from our forward-looking information and financial forecasts. Additional information about these factors and assumptions are included in our annual and quarterly reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

With that, I will now pass the floor to Mads Peter Zacho, the company's CEO. Please go ahead, Mads.

Mads Peter Zacho

Good morning and thank you all for joining this Navigator Gas earnings call for Q2 2024.

Please turn to Page 3. To begin with, I'll review the key data on our Q2 '24 performance, and then I'll go over the outlook for the rest of the year. Gary or even Randy will then bring more detail and analysis. Yet again, we generate more revenues during the quarter with operating revenues up 8% compared to the -- both the same period in 2023 and also Q1 of this year. This was driven by both higher rates, but also strong utilization.

Adjusted EBITDA for Q2 set yet another Navigator record of $78 million, which is well above the EBITDA of $69 million earned in Q2 of last year. The balance sheet is strong with the robust cash position even after we repaid on our debt facilities. We continued deploying capital into our ethylene terminal expansion and we also bought back shares.

The return of capital continued in Q2 with both the $0.05 fixed dividend and the share buyback up to now in combination 25 of -- 25% of net income. This will continue after the Q2 result, and in addition, you probably also noted that during Q2, we bought back 3.5 million shares from BW Group for a total of $51 million at $14.52 per share.