Aristides Pittas-led Euroseas completed the sale of three containerships in July, despite one of them becoming caught up in an arbitration over scrapping.
The owner had lined up the scrap sale of the 1,452-teu Manolis P (built 1995), but the initial deal failed in a fight over coronavirus delays and travel restrictions.
It has also wrapped up the sales of the 2,503-teu EM Oinousses (built 2000) and the 883-teu Kuo Hsiung (built 1993).
The sales generated net proceeds of $7.6m of which $7m will go towards repaying outstanding loans on the vessels.
The company may scrap one or two more ships this year depending on the market and its dry-docking requirements, chief executive Aristides Pittas said Wednesday during its second-quarter earnings call.
Euroseas has also agreed with lenders to fold $4.7m in 2020 loan repayments into balloon installments set for December 2012 or within 2022.
It also agreed with holders of its Series B preferred shares to have the option to pay quarterly dividends in-kind from 1 April to 29 January 2021, by issuing more Series B preferred share and increasing the dividend rate from 8% to 9%.
Euroseas returned to profit in the second quarter and first half of 2020, thanks to more revenue from a fleet that has grown to 19 ships from 11 a year ago.
'Highly profitable'
The company reported an adjusted net income of $1.39m for the second quarter versus a $1.76m net loss 12 months ago.
Adjusted earnings per share came in at $0.25, beating consensus estimates by $0.37 and surpassing the year-ago loss of $1.47.
Revenue was $13.5m versus $8.08m a year ago.
“The second quarter turned out to be highly profitable despite the challenges of the pandemic which affected the charter rates of our vessels in the second half of the period and the numerous operational difficulties that we encountered," Pittas said in a statement within the earnings report.
"We have responded quickly to address the possibility of a cash flow squeeze issues by agreeing with certain of our banks to defer installments and relax restricted cash covenants in case such liquidity is needed."
The company posted a first-half net profit of $2.9m versus a $2.2m loss a year ago. Revenue was up 76% year-on-year to $28m on the back of the larger fleet.
