Greece’s Costamare has been busy chartering vessels in a sign of improving markets, particularly for large containerships, amid the coronavirus crisis.
The US-listed owner said it concluded deals for 24 vessels in the second quarter alone - almost a third of its entire fleet of 69 ships. “Market activity has picked up,” chief financial officer Gregory Zikos said in the company’s results release for the period.
“Laid-up capacity has started decreasing, indicating improving market conditions. Demand continues to favor the larger and medium sizes, and especially ships above 8,000 teu,” Zikos said.
Cosco, for example, extended charter agreements for three 9,500-teu ships of Costamare by between 2 and 11 months, starting from June or July. Costamare did not reveal at what rates these charters were extended.
Partly as a result of that activity, voyage revenue declined by just 4.4% in the second quarter compared to last year, despite the global coronavirus slump, to $111.9m.
Costamare maintained a dividend of $0.10 a share on its common stock, the 39th consecutive payout in its history as a listed company. Net profit, adjusted for one-off items, even increased in the quarter to $31.7m, up from a profit of $26.2m in the same period last year.
However, the company booked a bottom-line net loss of $83.9m in the quarter, compared with a $20.9m profit last year. This was due to about $107m of non-cash charges related to four vessels held for sale, as well as to impairments on another pair of ships.
Costamare took advantage of a thaw in demolition markets to sell for scrap two ships, as TradeWinds already reported – the 7,400-teu Kawasaki and Kokura (both built 1997).
The company said on Monday it is planning to replace those with younger tonnage.
Costamare already took delivery on 24 July of the 12,690-teu YM Triumph (built 2020) - the first in a series of five vessels it ordered in 2018, which has began a ten-year charter with Yang Ming.
The company is sitting on ample liquidity, saying it has $220.7m of cash and cash equivalents as of 30 June. That includes a $19.6m stash co-owned in the joint venture scheme Costamare has set up with York Capital Management Global Advisors and an affiliated fund.
As TradeWinds already reported, Costamare successfully concluded in late June a refinancing drive that saw all its major debt repayments pushed back to 2024 and beyond.
