StealthGas has reported record earnings for the second quarter as it locked seven vessels into charters of a year or more.
It reported net income of $25.8m, marking a 146% year-on-year increase.
That came on the back of a 13.9% rise in revenue, which reached $41.8m.
The New York-listed LPG carrier owner also received a $24m distribution from a joint venture that sold the 34,500-cbm Eco Ethereal (built 2010). TradeWinds previously reported that the charterer exercised a purchase option on the ship.
Chief executive Harry Vafias said the profit figure marked an all-time high for StealthGas, which was created two decades ago.
“While we managed to contain our operating costs we took full advantage of a strong chartering market fixing vessels at higher rates during that and previous quarters whose benefits we are enjoying now,” he said in the earnings report.
“The bottom line was furthered bolstered by the return from our investments related to the sale of a vessel by one of our joint ventures.”
Voyage expenses reached $2.7m during the quarter, down from $3.5m a year earlier, and vessel operating expenses dipped to $12.5m from $13.4m.
Surpassing analyst’s estimate
Adjusted net income of $27.5m translated to $0.75 in adjusted earnings per share, which was well above the $0.53 estimate of one analyst polled by Yahoo Finance.
StealthGas said that since its last earnings report, it has locked two LPG carriers into three-year time charters, three into two-year contracts and two others into 12-month deals.
| Q2 2024 | Q2 2023 | H1 2024 | H1 2023 | |
| Revenue | $41,786,154 | $36,672,505 | $83,350,062 | $74,734,675 |
| Expenses | $25,686,276 | $26,579,518 | $49,735,146 | $54,910,302 |
| Equity earnings in joint ventures | $11,472,089 | $1,692,139 | $10,525,326 | $14,052,190 |
| Net income | $25,788,509 | $10,490,976 | $43,518,225 | $27,307,167 |
“Market sentiment continues to be bullish and as we leave the seasonally weaker third quarter and enter into the winter months we are starting to see a strengthening in the market and, as a positive sign, interest from charterers to fix for longer than one-year periods,” Vafias said.
About 85% of the fleet’s days are covered in 2024, with $220m in contracted revenue.
The Athens-based company also made $21.3m in debt payments so far during the third quarter.
“We continue with the strategy of debt reduction,” Vafias said, noting that the company has 24 unencumbered ships and a net debt ratio below 5%.
The second-quarter results helped lift StealthGas’ six-month profit to $43.5m, up from $27.3m in the opening half of 2023.
It ended the quarter with $71.4m in cash out of $728m in total assets, and it had $107m in long-term debt out of $131m in total liabilities.
