Costamare Inc. (NYSE:CMRE) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Gregory Zikos: Okay, regarding CBI, we don’t provide now a press release with that segmental information, neither for CBI nor like for this Voyage side bulk owned vessels or like with the containers or for Neptune Maritime Leasing. There will be some information in our 6-K filings. But for the time being I am right this is not part of our press release presentation. So we provide that it will be sure and for every business we provide the number of assets CBI chartered sort of in vessels for example with that net description about the transactions that for example that most of the ships are chartered in – at the index linked charter rates. So, this was CBI now. Regarding the Red Sea events in the CBI business I cannot say that we had a huge effect on our Voyage side charters or for like the profitability.

For the capesize it stands that C3 or C5 may not be affected by that area. So I cannot say that we saw something which made that market much more volatile. For capes for instance for Q4, we saw increased volatility because of adverse weather conditions in China. But this was not linked to the sort of Red Sea disruptions. So, concluding, I cannot say that we saw any major effects in the CBI business.

Climent Molins : Makes sense. Thank you. I also wanted to follow up on Ben’s question on Neptune Leasing. As I understand it is fully consolidated in your financial statements. You mentioned potentially having leverage to free up capital, but I am also wondering are there any debt outstanding on Neptune as of yearend?

Gregory Zikos: There is, because Neptune, it is capitalized by our equity and the transactions we conclude as Neptune, Neptune gets back leverage. So it gets debt from third party providers for every transaction it is entering into. So there is also leverage at the Neptune level. Now, generally, the leverage of Neptune is at low levels in the region of, I don’t know between 35% to 45% depending on the transactions. But again, but in order to have solid returns on our equity investments in Neptune, we need to have some back leverage as well, however at lower levels.

Climent Molins : Makes sense. Thanks for the color. That’s all from me. Thank you for taking my questions.

Operator: This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Zikos for any closing remarks.

Gregory Zikos: Thank you all for dialing in and for your interest in Costmare. We are looking forward to speaking with you again during the next quarterly results. Thank you very much. Bye.

Operator: Conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.