As of September 2024, the Company has total contracted revenues of approximately $220 million.
For the remainder of the year 2024 the Company has circa 85% of fleet days secured under period contracts and 55% for the year 2025.
The previously announced sale of the joint venture vessel Eco Ethereal was concluded in late April 2024 and the Company received a $24 million interim distribution from the joint venture.
CEO Harry Vafias Commented
Today we announce yet another record breaking quarter. Profits that were more than double compared to last year of $25.8 million for the second quarter of 2024 are an all time high for our company in the 20 years since its inception. 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. 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. We continue with the strategy of debt reduction and in the current quarter we have so far repaid over $21 million of debt and now have 24 unencumbered vessels, the vast majority of the fleet, and a net debt ratio below 5%. 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. As such we have recently fixed a number of longer charters that we announced today, bringing the contract coverage to 55% for next year, while all of our 27 fully owned vessels are currently fixed under period charters.
Conference Call details:
On September 5, 2024 at 11:00 am ET, the company’s management will host a conference call to discuss the results and the company’s operations and outlook.
Conference call participants should pre-register using the below link to receive the dial-in numbers and a personal PIN, which are required to access the conference call.
Online Registration: https://register.vevent.com/register/BI25c34f509b4240f9bdb0dfde53c8fd42
Slides and audio webcast:
There will also be a live and then archived webcast of the conference call, through the STEALTHGAS INC. website (www.stealthgas.com). Participants to the live webcast should register on the website approximately 10 minutes prior to the start of the webcast.
About STEALTHGAS INC.
StealthGas Inc. is a ship-owning company serving the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sector of the international shipping industry. StealthGas Inc. has a fleet of 32 LPG carriers, including five Joint Venture vessels in the water. These LPG vessels have a total capacity of 354,188 cubic meters (cbm). StealthGas Inc.’s shares are listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market and trade under the symbol “GASS.”
Visit our website at www.stealthgas.com
Forward-Looking Statements
Matters discussed in this release may constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements reflect our current views with respect to future events and financial performance and may include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance and underlying assumptions and other statements, which are other than statements of historical facts. The forward-looking statements in this