Costamare Inc. (NYSE:CMRE) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

The panamax market at the same time, it’s much more stable. So it doesn’t offer a lot of volatility-driven opportunities. But I’m afraid I cannot get into more detail on that. It’s like revealing what we do and what our long or short position on capes and to panamaxes now, which it’s difficult for me to enter into.

Ben Nolan: Okay. Well, I appreciate the commercial sensitivities around that. Maybe just from a broader perspective, as we’re thinking about how – again, what the drivers for profitability are. Is it fair to assume that there’ll be long periods of time where there aren’t any major shifts in profitability and then small episodes of substantial upside? Is that how we should think about what the revenue and profitability format would look like?

Gregory Zikos: Yes. Look, if you are referring to CBI because this is the most volatile…

Ben Nolan: Yes…

Gregory Zikos: Sort of business portfolios. I can tell you that based on the backlog of our container contracted revenues, $2.7 billion contracted revenues at sort of very healthy rates. Based on the low breakeven cost of the dry bulk owned vessels, which we bought at a very good time and they have a very low leverage. And based on the predictability and profitability, although at lower levels of like the Neptune Maritime Leasing, which is a very stable business, I think any sort of short-term volatility in terms of profitability at the CBI level can be very easily absorbed by the whole company. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be doing this. So I mean, in a nutshell, I think we can digest any short-term downturn of the market, which is something that is part of the business.

You cannot avoid it. However, the upside, it’s very substantial. So the downside based on the rest of the business we hold, it’s something manageable. So otherwise, we would enter into that business if we didn’t have the containership backlog, et cetera. And there is a lot of upside. So this is how we look at it. At the same time, this is a business that it is complementing our dry bulk owned vessels, which makes sense for us. So it is a calculated risk, if I can say. That based on the backlog of contracted revenues, low leverage at the Costamare Inc. level, high liquidity, attractive long-term charters in the containership sector, very stable business, the leasing business. So I mean, this is how we view it.

Ben Nolan: Yes. Understood. And I was just speaking on the CBI level on a standalone basis, just trying to think through what the normal path to profitability looks like, just sort of stable-ish at kind of modest levels and then every once in a while, you see big moves. That’s how you frame it.

Gregory Zikos: More specifically. You can have like a bigger move which does not translate into cash in the mark-to-market of the FFAs, like unrealized losses or gains which, however, do not have a cash impact, but it is profitability in brackets affecting EPS. There may be moves there. From the pure operation of the business, charter in, charter out, enter into pocket charters, et cetera, and settlements of FFAs leaving aside unrealized exposure. For the whole size of Costamare, this is not something that would change the fundamentals of our profitability.

Ben Nolan: Sure. Yes. No, and I appreciate that. The last question for me is just on the buybacks, obviously, you see the common buybacks. And curious, I mean, first of all, it’s been exclusive to the common and not to the preferred. So I know it can be either curious how you’re thinking about that. And in terms of the common buybacks, I mean, is this – the $10 million, that this is sort of what you think is a good run rate per quarter?