Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the StealthGas Inc. Q4 2023 Results Conference Call and Webcast. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode, with no question-and-answer session. Please note that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker, Mr. Michael Jolliffe, Chairman. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our fourth quarter 2023 earnings conference call and webcast. I'm Michael Jolliffe, Chairman of the Board of Directors. And joining me on our call today as usual is Harry Vafias, to discuss the market and company outlook, and Konstantinos Sistovaris 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. So if you could all take a moment to read our disclaimer on Slide 2 of this presentation, I should be grateful. Risks are further disclosed in StealthGas’ filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. I would also like to point out that all amounts quoted, unless otherwise clarified, are implicitly stated in U.S. dollars. Today we released our results for the fourth quarter and for the full year 2023, announcing for the second year in a row, record profits. So let's proceed to discuss these results and update you on the company's strategy and the market in general. Turning to slide 3, we summarized some highlights starting with fleet and operations update. We first concluded the previously announced sale of two vessels, the Echo Dream and Echo Green, delivering those vessels in January. That same month, we also took delivery of our long awaited MGC new building vessels, the Echo Wizard and Echo Oracle, that were deployed on their respective time charters. As the market was firm during the last couple of months, we continued securing more period charters both in our fully owned fleet and for the joint venture vessels with contract coverage for 2024 of 66% of our fleet days for our fully owned fleet. We have thus contracted revenues of over $200 million for all…

Thank you, Michael, and good morning to everyone. I will discuss our, the financial results that were released today. Let us turn to slide 7, where we see a snapshot of the income statement for the fourth quarter and 12 months of 2023 against the same period of 2022. Even though fleet days were reduced by 21% and we had seven fewer vessels, net revenues, that is after voyage expenses, came in at $30.8 million for the quarter and $130.3 million for the 12 months, a decrease of 15% for the quarter and 0.2% for the 12 months compared to last year. So our fewer vessels generated more voyage revenues comparatively and had reduced voyage expenses. Operating expenses were at $12.9 million for the quarter, down 12%, while for the full year were $53.1 million, a yearly reduction of 3.3%. We would have expected the larger reduction in OpEx year-on-year, but we did face inflationary pressures and had cost overruns, particular during the first quarter of last year. During the fourth quarter, we also faced some extraordinary costs related to the maintenance of one of our vessels. We also note depreciation costs being reduced significantly as a result of the fleet reduction to $5.6 million and $23.7 million respectively for the quarter and 12 months. During the fourth quarter of this year, the company did not recognize any gains or losses on the values of its fleets. But for the full year, the company recognized a $2.8 million impairment loss and a $7.6 million gain, coming from the sale of vessels during that period. As a result, income from operations increased 3% to $9.6 million for the quarter and increased by 40% to $45.8 million for the 12 months compared to last year. Interest and finance costs were significantly reduced…

On slide 10, we have a brief insight on the LPG market. 2023 was a bumper year for LPG exports that increased 4.3% year-on-year. The US further increased the rate of its exports growth, marking an impressive 15% year-over-year growth. We expect the US will continue to ship incremental amounts of NGLs in the current year, albeit not at such breakneck speeds. This coupled with the Middle East volumes continuing to decrease during 2023, mainly as a result of OPEC cut is solidifying the US position as number one exporter in the world that now accounts for over 40% of global exports. The situation in Europe did not change much. The winter has so far been relatively mild, reducing heating demand and petrochemical usage has also been anemic. As a result, inventories remain imports do not see the boost that was expected, marking declines year-on-year. That being said, and since the majority of our fleet trades in Europe, inter-regional trade has been quite active and rates did strengthen. This could also be a consequence of the supply of pressurized vessels in Europe being limited by the very strict operational and safety limitations set in European ports that exclude a significant part of the global fleet. As far as the other two major importers, India and China, forecasts are that India surpassed a record 18 million tons of imports in ‘23, growing imports by 3% last year, but more importantly, projections are for further increases. India is a growing economy of 1 billion plus people, where 45% of LPG demand is for household use. And with general elections coming, the government has been supportive of subsidies for LPG and eliminating import duties in order to make LPG more accessible to the people. China imports a record 31 million tons, registered the…

Thank you, Harry. In our last slide number 13, we are outlining some of the key variables that may affect our performance in the quarters ahead. We continue to remain optimistic on the longer term for the reasons that we analyzed earlier. Summing up, StealthGas reported for the fourth quarter 2023, a net income of $8.9 million. It was yet another quarter of strong profitability. For the full year 2023, net income amounted to $51.9 million, far surpassing last year's record yearly profit of $34.3 million, corresponding to a 51% increase. So it gives me great pleasure that not only has the company managed to sustain its record profitability, but drastically improve it successfully. Obviously, the main driver of such results is the lasting recovery of the LPG market that hopefully will continue. But markets are volatile and sound policies, as well as opportunistic plays, need to also guide decisions. As such, the company did not focus on growth for 2023, it rather focused on taking advantage of the market and securing more period charters, currently having over $200 million in contracted revenues, selling vessels as asset prices were rising, paying down debt as interest rates were rising, over $150 million was repaid in 2023, and over $30 million in the current quarter, and returning value to our shareholders by buying back our own stock, having bought over 10% of the issued shares during last year and spending $19.1 million. That being said, it was also important not to neglect to renew the fleet, and in January of this year, StealthGas took delivery of the two 40, 000 cubic meter MGC vessels, Echo Oracle and Eco Wizard who period charters should support profitability this year. So far, the beginning of 2024 looks promising, as the market for our vessels remains firm, and barring any extraordinary events, we should expect solid revenues in the current quarter. Even though our share prices climbed significantly over the last year, we believe we continue to be a sound, still undervalued investment, not just because we are optimistic on the market and have been producing good results but also because we are trading at a discount in terms of price to NAV and price to earnings ratios. We have now reached the end of our presentation and we would like to thank you for joining us at our conference call today and for your interest and trust in our company. We look forward to having you with us again at our next conference call for our first quarter results in May. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.

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