Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to GASS First Quarter 2022 Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker’s presentation, there will be the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised, that today's conference is being recorded. I now would like to hand the conference over to our first speaker today, Michael Jolliffe, Chairman of the Board. Please, go ahead, sir.

Thank you very much, Nadia. Good morning. This is Michael Jolliffe and joining me on our call today is Harry Vafias, our Chief Executive Officer and Konstantinos Sistovaris, who will be handling the Investor Relations, to discuss the financial aspects. Before we commence our presentation, I would like to remind you that we will be discussing forward-looking statements, which reflect current views with respect to future events and financial performance. At this stage, if you could all take a moment to read our disclaimer on slide two of this presentation. Risks are further disclosed in StealthGas filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. I would also like to point out that all amounts quoted, unless otherwise clarified, are implicitly stated in United States dollars. Today, we released our earnings results for the first quarter, which was also the first quarter of trading as a pure LPG company, and we saw fantastic improvement compared to last year. So let's proceed to discuss these results and what we see in the market in general. Turning to slide three. We summarize the highlights of our first quarter. In the first quarter of 2022, we faced an improved LPG market, particularly in Europe, hence, we took the opportunity and continue to secure more vessels trading in the area on period charters. On the other hand, the market in Asia was stable, but we also managed to secure more period charters. In terms of operational utilization of our fleet at 92.7%, it was at similar levels to last year, a figure we aim to improve as we had one vessel to dry dock and did experience off-hire days on the spot ships. However, we marked an 18% reduction of spot days quarter-on-quarter and 65% year-on-year, managing to earn better returns on time chartered vessels than…

Thank you, Michael, and good morning to everyone. I will discuss our financial performance for the first quarter of 2022. Let us turn to slide 7, where we see the income statement for the first quarter of 2022 against the same period of the previous year. Voyage revenues came in at $35.9 million, marking a decrease of $1.5 million, about 4% compared to the same period of last year, partly due to the fewer vessels in the spot market. Our spot market actually decreased by 65% and partly due to the fewer number of vessels, we had 36.5 average vessels in the first quarter of 2022 versus 41.6 average vessels during the first quarter of 2021. We should also note the increase in the voyage and TCE revenues of the four handysize LPGs in the fleet that were all chartered at higher rates in a stable market, albeit starting from a lower base. Voyage costs decreased by $2.7 million compared to the same period last year. This decrease in voyage expenses was partly due to the absence of tankers in the 2022 results and partly due to the decrease in spot base where we are responsible for the voyage costs of these vessels. Based on all of the above, our net revenues for the period were in the order of $31.6 million, compared to $30.5 million last year, about 4% up. Operating expenses saw a significant reduction of $2.2 million, about 15% compared to Q1 2021 due to the fewer number of vessels, where we to exclude this effect, our OpEx would be along the same levels as last year, a positive result given that we continue to face cost pressures, particularly in crew cost due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In terms of drydocking costs, we had $0.4 million in…

Going on Slide 10, we are providing some insight on the LPG market. Needless to say that given the current geopolitical tensions in Ukraine, along with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it's very difficult to foresee our markets performance. On the positive side, during the first few months of 2022, the US, the largest exporter of LPG has ramped up its exports over 10%, and China has been importing a bigger share of its LPG imports from the US. However, China, in the first quarter of the year decreased its imports as a results of the COVID-19 policies. It has followed with a 7% year-on-year decrease. We expect that this will reverse and China will continue to be the main demand driver. But for the time being, such a slack in demand is being filled by increased imports from other Asian countries, particularly India, that surge imports rise by 17%. India, mainly source its LPG from the Middle East, so some of the LPG has been redirected from US to Europe. Now 30% of European LPG imports are from the US, and it's possible we see increased volumes in the future. In addition, LPG imports of Northwestern Europe are expected to increase in the years ahead on the back of a rising petrochemical demand. European intra-regional LPG trade is a large market for small LPGs and has held pretty well given the circumstances. The continued war in Ukraine has created difficulties in trade in Russia, even though we speak to the US and Europe have not sanctioned LPG imports. As a result, we expect European countries to try and reduce their dependency on Russian imports. The biggest importers of Russian LPG have been Poland, Finland and Ukraine, usually done through railcars, so a disruption in imports could be counted either from…

Thank you, Harry. We are very pleased with the results we announced today as it was one of the best quarters for our company over the last few years. Following the strategic decision to become a pure player in the broader LPG market, this was the first quarter that the StealthGas fleet consisted of only LPG carriers of various sizes. During the first quarter, the improving LPG market continued its upward trend, and we managed to capitalize, posting improved profits of $7.6 million one of the best quarterly results in many years. On an adjusted basis, our EPS for the quarter was $0.23. We also managed to contain cost pressures, particularly related to crew and bunker prices that continue to push our cost base. That being said, we continue to operate in a challenging geopolitical environment with the war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly with regards to the situation in China, still ongoing and creating more uncertainty for the future. Now we can also add economic uncertainty as a result of high inflationary pressures and rising interest rates. How all this will affect the LPG shipping market and whether we will be able to benefit from any change in trade patterns remains to be determined, as this is a market that is still seeking direction. Going forward, we cannot predict our market's reality, especially in such turbulent times. However, our sizable fleet, our market strong fundamentals, LPG rates improvement in the first quarter of 2022, along with our healthy capital structure are the strong points on which we will rely, no matter any potential market disturbances we might need to face. We have now reached the end of our presentation, and we would like to open the floor for your questions. So operator, please open the floor. Thank you.

Thank you. Dear participants, we will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] The first question comes from the line of Chris Robertson from Jefferies. Please, ask your question.

Good morning, gentlemen, and thanks for taking my questions.

Good morning.

So it looks like you have seven scheduled drydockings this year. Can you talk about kind of the cadence around that? How many were completed during the first quarter? And what's your expectation for total off-hire days this year?

We had one already, but it's not easy to calculate the off-hire, because that will depend on where -- in which country the drydockings will take place. And it also depends if China will be open for drydockings, because that makes a huge difference on costs and off-hire. So I think we have to see that closer to the drydocking dates.

Are any in the yards during 2Q, or are you trying to wait it out to see what happens with the China easing lockdowns?

As market is hot, obviously, we try to delay it as much as it's allowed by cash. We don't have any vessels now on drydock. And as I said, if China does open, that will be a big project reduction on cost and off-hire, because China is cheaper than most other places.

Okay. Got it. And for that one that was in drydock during the first quarter, I believe it was off-hire of 61 days during 1Q. Was that 100% related to that one vessel?

No, I don't think that's right. We can check and come back to you, if you want to send us an e-mail on it.

Sure. I'll follow-up with you offline. Thanks for that. I guess, with the market improving now and the shares still trading below NAV, aside from a general market improvement in the LPG sector, what do you think is going to drive kind of a narrowing of that discount to the NAV?

Consistent quarterly profits.

Got it. That makes sense. Okay, guys. Thank you very much for the time. That's it for me.

Thank you.

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Eric Newman from TowerView. Please ask your question.

Hey, good morning, Harry. Congratulations on obviously a very strong quarter. As you guys know, we've been very long-term supportive shareholders. And my question is on capital allocation also. You guys have historically been pretty opportunistic. You sold stock when it's gotten close to book value. You've repurchased shares in the open market and even launched the tender. But your stock now trades at $2.64. The book value at report is $12.80 per share, and you've continued to sell shares, including this past quarter -- excuse me, ships, including this past quarter with minimal impairments and now we have a pretty meaningful cash balance. So, why doesn't it make sense even given uncertainty and continued uncertainty to repurchase a meaningful amount of stock at this level, or if the book is truly salable at anywhere near these prices, how does it continue to make sense to operate the business? And what are the better uses of cash if not to repurchase stock? Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.

Thank you, Eric. As you know very well, the biggest mistake that investors do is that they are too quick to judge either on the upside or the downside. The stock is still at these levels, because we just announced results. And I guess most investors want to see if that good market persists or not, which we have seen in the past, the same psychology and mentality from the shareholder base. Now, you've seen we've sold three ships, both young and old and crystallized NAV, which again emphasizes the fact that, our NAV is about the numbers you talked about. And indeed, at this level, we are indeed cheap. But if we have two, three quarters with very good results and the stock price is still at about those levels, then your point will be absolutely right. We had previous quarters where the numbers were not good and obviously, people were disappointed and they did not expect that we could have this huge turnaround. Our net income this quarter was up 900%. On top of that, don't forget, the stock is not very liquid. But in the end of the day, you know we'll take the right decisions. I'm the largest shareholder. So, obviously, what is best for me is best for all of you. And of course, if we continue to have these profitable quarters and the cash balance is big as it is now, of course, we will buy stock cost as we've done before. If we have never do it, your point would be accurate. But as you said, we've done it before and we actually did a tender offer in the COVID times, which I don't think many companies had the guts to do. So, the shareholders that were patient will be rewarded as it happened in the previous upturn in 2009-2010.

Thanks Harry. Appreciate it.

Thank you, Eric.

Thank you. [Operator Instructions]

I see that there are no questions, other questions. So, we'd like to thank you for joining us at our conference call and we are looking forward to having you us again for our Q2 2022 results in August. Thank you very much.

That concludes our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect. Have a nice day.