Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the EuroDry Ltd. Conference Call on the third quarter 2023 financial results. We have with us today Mr. Aristides Pittas, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Tasos Aslidis, Chief Financial 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. At which time you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. I must advise you that this conference is being recorded today. Please be reminded that the company announced its results with a press release that has been publicly distributed. Before passing the floor to Mr. Pittas, I would like to remind everyone that in today's presentation and conference call, EuroDry will be making forward-looking statements.
These statements are within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Matters discussed may be forward-looking statements which are based on current management expectations that involve risks and uncertainties that may result in such expectations not being realized. I kindly draw your attention to slide number two of the webcast presentation, which has the full forward-looking statement, and the same statement was also included in the press release. Please take a moment to go through the whole statement and read it. Now I would like to pass the floor to Mr. Pittas. Please go ahead, sir.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you all for joining us today for our scheduled conference call. Together with me is Mr. Tasos Aslidis, our Chief Financial Officer. The purpose of today's call is to discuss our financial results for the three- and nine-month period ended September 30th. Please turn to slide 3 of the presentation. Our financial highlights are shown there. For the third quarter of 2023, we reported total net revenues of $10 million and a loss of $0.5 million or $0.19 loss per basic and diluted share. Adjusted net loss for the quarter was $0.7 million or $0.24 adjusted loss per basic and diluted share. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $3.1 million. Please refer to the press release for the reconciliation between the adjusted net loss and adjusted EBITDA.
Tasos will go over our financial highlights in more detail later on in the presentation. As of September 8th, we had purchased a total of 2,268,000 shares of our common stock in the open market for about $4 million and are under our share repurchase plan of up to $10 million, announced in August 2022 and extended for another year. This represents about 10% of our outstanding shares. On September 12th, 2023, we announced our agreement to acquire three Eco Ultramax vessels, M/V Christos K, a 63,000 deadweight dry bulk vessel built in 2015, the sister ship, M/V Maria, a 63,000 dry bulk vessel also built in 2015, and another sister ship, the M/V Yannis P, built in 2014, for a total price of $65 million.
The vessels are also sister ships to our main M/V Alexander P, which was built at the same yard in 2017 by ourselves. These acquisitions further expand our modern fleet cluster at a time that we believe is supportive of a healthy market over the next two-three years, given current market fundamentals, especially the low order book as a percentage of the fleet and the effect of environmental regulations on the ability of certain vessels to continue trading. Of course, geopolitical uncertainties remain, which may potentially hinder demand. However, we believe the risks are generally tilted to the upside, and the present level of the market presented a good opportunity to expand our fleet with high-quality units of a known design. We expect these vessels to make significant contributions to our EBITDA in the coming quarters and years.
On October 26th, we announced a strategic partnership with NRP Project Finance, a leading project manager of direct investments within shipping and offshore, to co-invest with some Norwegian investors in motor vessel Christos K and motor vessel Maria. This opens up the door for us to the Norwegian market, which we hope we will be able to further develop. Please turn to slide 4, where we provide further details about the sale and purchase charter and operational highlights. Motor vessel Yannis P was delivered on October 10th, 2023. The vessel was already employed under a time charter contract until December 2023, at $12,500 per day for a period of approximately 30-40 days, which is continuing after the delivery.
The consideration was partly paid by cash at hand and partly financed with a sustainability-linked loan for $10.5 million with Eurobank S.A. On October 5th and November 6th, we took delivery of M/V Christos K and M/V Maria respectively. The vessels are acquired in partnership with a number of investors represented by NRP Project Finance AS, as already said, in which the NRP investors acquired a 53.9% ownership stake in each of the vessels. Both vessels were partly financed with cash in hand and with a sustainability-linked loan of $11 million each with Eurobank S.A. We believe that joint ventures such as this can provide a new funding source for fleet expansion without diluting existing shareholders and allows us to establish relationship with private investors and jointly capitalize on investment opportunities in the market. Please note that motor vessel Christos K.
has been fixed until the end of November 2023 at $9,600 per day, and M/V Maria is fixed until the end of November at $10,500 per day. Continuing on the chartering side, another seven of our 13 vessels are employed in short-term charters for a fixed period of two-three months. Two of our vessels continue to be employed under index-linked charters until March 2024 and 2025 respectively, at 105.5% of the average Baltic Kamsarmax Index. And one vessel, M/V Blessed Luck, is fixed on a longer time charter since May 2023 at $15,800 per day until January 2024. You can see the specifics of the other seven charters we fixed in the accompanying presentation.
Our chartering strategy is largely driven by market expectations, and at current rates, we don't expect to be fixing longer term charters. Given the expectations for a roughly stable market going forward, we will continue with the same short-term charter strategy until rates start climbing, and we can secure higher rates for longer periods. Earlier this month, we took some protection through an FFA covering one Panamax vessel for Q1 at a level of $10,100 per day. Regarding dry docks and repairs, motor vessel Good Heart underwent a dry dock for 24 days during the third quarter. We also incurred about five days of commercial off-hire at the lowest point of the quarter with motor vessel Santa Cruz.
Please turn to slide 5, which shows the main particulars of the 13 vessels that comprise our fleet today, which includes 5 Panamax, 5 Ultramax, 2 Kamsarmax, and a Supramax dry bulk carrier with a total capacity of approximately 930,000 deadweight tons and an average age of 12.5 years. I remind you that motor vessel Christos and Maria are 61% owned by Eurobank, the remaining being owned by the NRP investors. Next, please turn to slide 6, which graphically depicts our fleet employment profile. As you can see, fixed rate covers for the fourth quarter of 2023 stands at around 50%. This figure excludes ships on index charters, which are open to market fluctuations that have secured employment.
Turning on slide 7, we go over the market highlights for the third quarter ended September thirtieth, and up until last week. During the third quarter of 2023, the average Panamax spot rate was around $10,676 per day. By September thirtieth, spot rates for Panamax vessels had recovered to approximately $14,060 per day, reflecting the seasonal market strength during September, but have since slid by about 15% to $11,950 per day as markets have reacted to the slower world economy. Please now turn to slide 9. With the latest update in October 2023, the IMF forecast showed that the global economy is still slow and uneven, remaining well below the historic average of 3.8% growth between 2000 and 2019.
Global GDP growth is estimated to slow from 3.5% in 2022 to 3% this year and 2.9% in 2024. Global inflation is forecast to decline steadily starting from 2024, due to tighter monetary policy, aided by lower international commodity prices. Slow economic recovery has been dominated by post-pandemic geopolitical shocks, including the war in Ukraine, the latest Israeli-Hamas conflict, U.S.-China relations, and the Chinese property sector crisis, as well as the effects of monetary policy tightening to reduce inflation. However, important divergences are appearing. The slowdown is more pronounced in advanced economies than in emerging markets and developing economies. Among advanced economies, the U.S. has been revised up due to resilient consumption and investment, while the Euro area has been revised down as tighter monetary policy and energy crisis have taken a toll.
Divergence is also evident among emerging markets and developing economies, with China facing growing headwinds, while Brazil, India and Russia have been revised upwards. Despite the slightly slower global growth expectations, according to the latest Clarksons estimates, dry bulk trade demand is expected to return to a steady growth of 4.6 this year. However, for 2024, Clarksons expects just 1.8% in growth, largely driven by China's need for dry bulk imports, coupled with the low order book and implementation of the environmental regulations, which will effectively reduce vessel capacity. Please turn to slide 10. Uncertainty about future fuels and high new building prices has led to a low order book. As of November 2023, the order book as a percentage of total fleet is only 8.1, 8.1%, remaining one of the lowest in history.
This suggests minimal fleet growth over the next two to three years. There is also the effect of increased slow steaming and scrapping, amid the introduction of new environmental regulations, which could reduce available bulker supply even further. Turning to slide 11, let us now look into the supply fundamentals in a bit more detail. According to Clarksons' latest report, new deliveries as a percentage of total fleet are expected to be 3.8% in 2023, 3.2% in 2024, and 3.8% in 2025 onwards. As of November 2023, the total dry bulk vessel operating fleet was 13,494 vessels, but the actual fleet growth is expected to be lower than the aforementioned figures due to scrapping and slippage.
Also, 8% of the fleet is older than 30 years old and a good candidate for scrapping, especially if the market remains at current or lower levels. Please turn to slide 12, where we summarize our outlook for the dry bulk market. As discussed, the bulk carrier market continued to drop within July, but started rising in August and September and had risen further within October, reflecting the seasonal market strength. On average, in Q3, time charter rates for single trips remained at the same levels as in the second quarter of 2023, earning $11,000 per day. Reduced fleet inefficiencies, persistent demand challenges in key regions and the accumulation of fleet growth in recent years have contributed to the creation of the softer market conditions seen until recently.
However, freight rates increased by 37% in October compared to average first quarter of 2023, while time charter rates have also seen a 10% increase due to increased demand for coal predominantly. However, during the last couple of weeks, their markets appear to be losing steam. These moderate market conditions are expected to persist in the remaining of the fourth quarter of 2024 and throughout the year of 2024. The recent rate gain demonstrates support by seasonal factors, but the first quarter of 2024 is expected to be seasonally quite weak. Uncertainty remains over the scale and timing of potential market improvements, with a range of scenarios surrounding key factors, including the Chinese economy, the geopolitical implications of the wars and the aforementioned supply infrastructure regulation.
Our above described fundamental analysis suggests a potentially higher market for 2024 than that currently implied by the FFAs. Let us turn to slide 15. The left side of the slide shows the evolution of one-year time charter rates of Panamax dry vessels since 2002. As of November 1, 2023, the one-year time charter rate for Panamax ships with a capacity of 75,000 deadweight tons stood at $11,975 per day, which is slightly below the historical median of around $13,500 per day. On the other hand, the vessel prices, as can be seen in the right-hand side graph, are still significantly higher than the 10-year historical price average and median.
Under these circumstances, having grown our fleet by 30% with the current acquisitions, we will concentrate more on strengthening our balance sheet further and waiting for better circumstances to further grow the company. Of course, if we identify other joint venture opportunities which provide accretive possibilities, we will execute upon them.... In the meantime, we may continue to make further stock repurchases, noting, however, that the liquidity in our stock has decreased and therefore trying to optimize the whole process. Let me now pass the floor over to our CFO, Tasos Aslidis, to go over our financial highlights in more detail. Tasos, the floor is yours.
Thank you very much, Aris. Good morning from me as well, ladies and gentlemen. Over the next 4 slides, I will give you an overview of our financial highlights for the third quarter and nine months of 2023 and compare them to the same periods of last year. For that, let's start slide 15. For the third quarter of 2023, the company reported total net revenues of $10 million, representing a 36.7% decrease over total net revenues of $15.8 million during the third quarter of last year and that decrease was the result of the lower number of vessels we operated in the third quarter of 2023 versus last year, and the lower time charter rates that our vessels earned this year compared to last.
We reported net loss for the period of $500,000, as compared to a net income of $6.2 million for the same period, the third quarter of 2022. Interest and other financial costs for the third quarter of 2023 amounted to $1.6 million, compared to about $1 million for the same period of last year. Interest expense during the third quarter of this year was higher, mainly due to the increased underlying interest rates, SOFR, that our loans were charged during the period, compared again to the previous, to the same period of last year. Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter of 2023 was $3.1 million, compared to $9.5 million we achieved during the same period of 2022.
Basic and diluted loss per share for the third quarter of this year was $0.19, calculated on about 2.8 million basic and diluted weighted average number of shares outstanding. Compared to earnings per share of $2.11 basic and $2.10 diluted, calculated on about 2.9 million basic and diluted weighted average number of shares outstanding for the third quarter of 2022. Excluding the effect on the loss for the quarter of the unrealized gain and derivatives, the adjusted net loss for the quarter ended September 30th, 2023, would have been $0.24 loss per share, basic and diluted, compared to adjusted earnings of $1.94 basic and $1.93 diluted, respectively, for the same period of last year.
We do this adjustment because typically, security analysts do not include the above items in the published estimates of earnings per share. Let's now look at the numbers for the corresponding nine-month period ended September 30, 2023, and compare them to the same period of last year. For the first nine months of 2023, the company reported total net revenues of $31.7 million, representing a 42.4% decrease over total net revenues of $55.1 million during the first nine months of 2022. Again, this was the result of the decreased number of vessels we operated and the lower time charter rates our vessels earned.
The company reported net loss for the period of $3.3 million, as compared to a net income of $27.3 million for the nine-month period, the same nine-month period of 2022. Interest and other financing costs for the first nine months of 2023 amounted to $4.4 million, compared to $2.4 million for the same period of last year. Again, the interest expense for the period was higher, mainly due to the increased underlying rates, interest rates on our loans paid this year. Adjusted EBITDA for the first nine months of 2023 was $8 million, compared to $35.9 million achieved during the first nine months of 2022.
Basic and diluted loss per share for the first nine months of 2023 was $1.17, calculated on 2.8 million basic and diluted weighted average number of shares outstanding, compared to earnings per share of $9.43 basic and $9.34 diluted for the same period of last year. Again, excluding the effect of the unrealized loss on derivatives, the adjusted loss, net loss for the nine-month period ended September 30, 2023, would have been $0.57 per share, compared to adjusted earnings of $8.69 basic and $8.60 diluted for the same period of last year. Let's now turn to slide 16 to review our fleet performance.
We'll start our review as usual, by looking at our fleet utilization rates for the third quarter of this year and compare them the same period of 2022. Again, as we do all the time, our fleet utilization rate is broken down to commercial and operational. During the third quarter of 2023, our commercial utilization rate was 99.4%, while our operational utilization rate was 99.5% compared to 100% commercial and 98.9% operational for the same period, the third quarter of 2022.
On average, 10 vessels were owned and operated during the third quarter of this year, earning another time charter equivalent rate of $12,126 per day, compared to 11 vessels we operated in the same period of 2022, which earned on average $20,637 per day. Our total daily operating expenses, including management fees, averaged $6,680 per vessel per day during the third quarter of 2023, compared to $6,593 per vessel per day for the third quarter of last year. General and administrative expenses per day per vessel amounted to $677 the third quarter of this year, compared to $700 for the third quarter of 2022.
If we move further down on this table, we can see our cash flow breakeven rate, which takes into account dry docking expenses, interest expenses and loan repayments. As we can see, during the third quarter of 2023, our daily cash flow breakeven rate was $12,640 per vessel per day, compared to $13,978 per vessel per day for the third quarter of last year. If we move to the right side of this slide, we can review the same figures for the nine-month periods of this year and last year.
During the first 9 months of 2023, our commercial utilization rate was 99.1% and our operational utilization rate was 98.1%, compared to 99.8% commercial and 99.2% operational for the same period of 2022. On average, we owned and operated 10 vessels during 2023, earning an average time charter equivalent rate of $11,644 per vessel per day, compared to 10.5 vessels during this same period of last year, which earned $22,876 per vessel per day on average.
Our vessel operating expenses, again including management fees, averaged $7,095 per vessel per day during the first nine months of this year, and compared to $6,587 per vessel per day for the same period of 2022. General and administrative expenses per day per vessel amounted to $813 this year, compared to $750 for the first nine months of 2022. As we did for the three-month figures, we can look at our cash flow breakeven levels for the nine-month period at the last line of this slide, which also take into account, as I mentioned earlier, dry docking expenses, interest expenses and loan repayments.
In the first nine months of 2023, we had $13,319 per vessel per day breakeven level, cash flow breakeven level, compared to $12,955 per day per vessel for the same period of last year. Let's now turn to slide 17 to review our debt profile. As of September 30, 2023, we had outstanding bank debt of about $75 million. Repayments for the remaining of 2023 amount to $2.6 million. As I mentioned earlier, we assumed additional debt to finance the acquisition of the three vessels we bought, and that debt amounted to $32.5 million, and that additional debt is reflected in the repayments shown in the top left part of the chart.
In 2024, our total debt repayments, including balloon payments, amount to $18.05 million, while they are set to decrease to $9.7 million, approximately both in 2025 and 2026. Another point worth mentioning in this slide is that relates to our average mark, to the average margin of our debt, which is about 2.64%. Assuming a SOFR rate of about 5.41%, the rate as of October sixth, on top of that, and including the cost of the portion of our debt covered by our interest rate swap, we estimate the total cost of our senior debt to be around 7.75%. At the bottom of this slide, we can see our projected cash flow breakeven level for the next twelve months, broken down to its various components.
Overall, we expect our cash flow breakeven level to be around $13,303 per vessel per day. Also on the same table, you can see what would be our, the breakeven rate for our EBITDA to be on the positive side, so we would need to earn $7,830 per vessel per day to register a positive EBITDA result for the next 12 months. That rate would include our operating expenses, G&A expenses and dry docking costs. Let's now move to the next slide, slide 18, where we can see some highlights from our balance sheet in a rather simplified way. This slide gives us a snapshot of our assets and liabilities. As of September 30th, 2023, cash and other tangible assets on our balance sheet stood at about $42 million.
The book value of our vessels, including the $6.5 million advance payment we made during the quarter for the acquisition of the 3 Ultramax vessels, were approximately $148 million, resulting in total book value for our assets of about $109 million. On our liability side, our debt as of September 30, as I mentioned earlier, stood at about $75 million, representing about 40% of the book value of our assets, while other liabilities amounted to $6.5 million, or about 3% of the book value of our assets. That calculation results in a book value of shareholders' equity of about $109.4 million, translating to a book value of $39.2 per share.
However, based on our own estimates and market transactions, we estimate that the market value for our vessels was above the book value and stood, including the advances I mentioned earlier, at about $182 million, representing approximately 23% higher value compared to the book value of the vessels, and resulting in a net asset value per share in excess of $51. I would like to close this presentation, noting that our share price is lately trading around $15, and thus, if you compare this to our net asset value, represents a steep discount, traded at steep discount to it, which should offer significant appreciation potential for our shareholders and investors. With that, I would like to turn the floor back to Aristides to continue the call.
Thank you, Tasos. I'm opening now up the floor for any questions.
Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press Star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment please, while we poll for questions. Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Kristoffer Skeie with Arctic Securities. Please proceed with your question.
Hello, gentlemen. How are you?
Hello.
Yeah, congrats on the quarter and on high EBITDA, so that's good. I was just wondering if you could tell us a bit more about the rationale for growing your fleet through the joint venture, as opposed to what, what's the rationale for this? And if such a platform something you would consider to use more as a means to expand, or how should we think about this?
So the board had initially decided to acquire two vessels, and we were looking to find them. We then found a group of three vessels, and we said that it would be best and more conservative not to acquire it on our own, with our own equity, although we could, but we wanted to maintain a strong balance sheet. And we had started some discussions with NRP regarding potential cooperation, and finally, we thought that it's a good idea. Why not? They are looking to find something to invest in for their investors. Why not do something together in a joint venture?
The discussions led to an agreement, and we are very happy to have done it because we open up our company to the Norwegian market, which is a very knowledgeable shipping market and a strong shipping market. And hopefully we will be able to do more stuff with the same investors or other investors.
Thank you. And with regards to asset values, obviously they are still quite high in a historical perspective, and it doesn't seem like they're coming down anytime soon, although rates are not supporting it. With that in mind, would you consider selling some of your older vessels?
We will definitely be, at some point, replacing the older vessels with the, with newer, with newer vessels. This transition has to happen, and at some point it will happen. When we think, the time is right, we will do it. Hopefully within the next couple of years, we will see a stronger market, which will, you know, make it, more interesting for us to, to sell, to sell some of the older vessels. We will see. The transition has to happen at some point. We bought the three Ultramaxes, I think, at the lowest point of, values within this year, at least. The prices were softening throughout the summer.
But then after we concluded the deal to acquire the ships, the markets in September and October improved, and we saw prices going up a little bit. So we think we found a right time within the year to affect this expansion. We have to see how next year develops, and we'll take it from there.
Okay, thanks. That's all from me. Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, press star one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from the line of Tate Sullivan with Maxim Group. Please proceed with your question.
Hi, this is Brian Yu on the line for Tate Sullivan. Hi, I just wanted to ask, in terms of, like, the market demand for China, what are some indicators you guys are seeing to help indicate that the demand for 2024 is gonna be moderate in terms of seasonality?
Yeah, we think that generally seasonality will persist, right? So there will be the periods when there is a lot of demand for grain, or the factories want to restock and all that stuff, which usually happens. So seasonality will be an issue again next year. China is a question mark for us right now. There are some positives and some negatives regarding them. I think that China has always managed to, you know, when people expect it to be having difficulties, to come up with the right measures, which result in keeping the economy rather strong.
We are optimistic that despite the fact that we've seen, well, we've actually seen a big increase in the coal imports, we've seen significant iron ore imports as well, despite the very poor market on the construction side. We are optimistic that China will, you know, will manage to continue delivering this 5%-5.5% growth, which is sufficient to hopefully maintain rates at good levels.
Okay, got it. Thank you.
A final reminder, if you would like to ask a question, press star one on your telephone keypad. One moment, please, while we re-poll for any additional questions. Mr. Pittas, it appears we have no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the floor back over to you for closing comments.
Thanks, everybody, for standing by and listening to our today's conference call. We will be back to you within three months' time with the results of the end of the year. Thanks, everybody, for listening to us.
Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation, and have a wonderful day.