Although StealthGas currently operates 8 vessels less than the 2nd quarter of the last year, the company has reported the best results in over a decade.
More specifically Nasdaq listed company StealthGas Inc. for the 2nd quarter and 6 months of 2022 reported improved revenues of $40 million with 34 vessels at the end of Q2 22’ compared to 42 vessels for the same quarter of last year, net Income of $12.2 million for Q2 22’ UP 650% compared to 2021 corresponding to an EPS of $0.32 compared to Net Income of $1.6 million.
About 62% of fleet days are secured on period charters for the remainder of 2022, with total fleet employment days for all subsequent periods generating approximately $72 million (excl. JV vessels) in contracted revenues.
The company also announced the profitable sale from the joint venture of the Eco Nebula to a third party and expects that the net proceeds from the sale after debt repayment will be distributed to the partners.
In July 2022,
StealthGas also entered into an agreement for the acquisition of two 40,000cbm newbuilding Medium Gas Carriers for a capital expenditure of circa $120 million. The vessels are under construction in Korea and are expected to be delivered in Q3 23’ and Q4 23’ respectively.
Board Chairman Michael Jolliffe commented: “Following the strategic decision to become a pure operator in the broader LPG market, this was the second quarter that the Stealthgas fleet consisted of only LPG carriers of various sizes achieving most profitable six months for our company for over a decade. During the second quarter there was robust demand for our LPG vessels. All vessel sizes in our fleet showed improving results and particularly the handysize vessels boosted our bottom line. The EPS for the six months was $0.52 while our stock currently trades below $3.00. We will continue our chartering strategy placing our vessels on period charters, and while the summer months are usually quieter in terms of activity and we have seen more spot activity we expect that we will find increasing opportunities in the coming months for period charters.
While we are optimistic for the LPG shipping market, we recognise that we continue to operate in a challenging geopolitical environment where issues are being perpetuated. As of late inflationary pressures have been a concern of ours, and we have managed to contain cost pressures for the time being. We have started seeing the impact from interest rises although these have been somewhat moderated from the interest rate hedges we have entered and the historically low debt levels we maintain at this point. As we have noted in the past we maintain a healthy capital structure that allows for investments and moderate fleet renewal for example with the two newbulding medium gas carriers that we expect to take delivery of next year. It is important that we maintain a modern high quality fleet that allows us to offer our services with reliability and safety to our customers”.
StealthGas Inc. has a fleet of 40 LPG carriers, including six Joint Venture vessels in the water, and three 40,000 cbm newbuilding Medium Gas Carrier (one owned through Joint Venture) to be delivered by the end of 2023. These LPG vessels have a total capacity of 465,510 cubic meters (cbm).