Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Tsakos Energy Navigation Conference Call on the Fourth Quarter 2025 financial results. We have with us Mr. Takis Arapoglou, Chairman of the Board; Mr. Nikolas Tsakos, Founder and CEO; Mr. George Saroglou, President and Chief Operating Officer; and Mr. Harrys Kosmatos, Co-CFO of the company. [Operator Instructions]. I must advise that this conference is being recorded today. And now I'll pass the floor to Mr. Nicolas Bornozis, President of Capital Link and Investor Relations Adviser to Tsakos Energy Navigation Limited. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you very much, and good morning to all of our participants. I am Nicolas Bornozis, President of Capital Link and Investor Relations Adviser to Tsakos Energy Navigation. This morning, the company publicly released its financial results for the 12 months and fourth quarter ended December 31, 2025. In case you do not have a copy of today's earnings release, please call us at (212) 661-7566 or e-mail at ten@capitallink.com, and we will have a copy for you e-mailed right away. . Now please note that parallel to today's conference call, there is also a live audio and slide webcast, which can be accessed on the company's website on the front page at www.tenn.gr. The conference call will follow the presentation slides, so please, we urge you to access the presentation slides on the company's website. Now please note that the slides of the webcast presentation will be available and archived on the website of the company after the conference call. Also, please note that the slides of the webcast presentation are user controlled, and that means that by clicking on the proper button, you can move to the next or to the previous slide on your own. Now at this time, I would like to read the safe harbor statement. This conference call and slide presentation of the webcast contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, which may affect TEN's business prospects and results of operations. And at this moment, I would like to pass the floor to Mr. Arapoglou, the Chairman of Tsakos Energy Navigation. Mr. Arapoglou, please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Nicolas. Good morning, good afternoon to everyone. Thanks for joining our call today. I have really nothing to add on the brilliant financial performance and the usual quality operating performance for TEN. Just 4 points from me worth noting. All of our 19 new buildings under construction, including the 2 recent VLCCs and the LNG are already in the money. The second point is that we sold the 10-year-old VLCC generating $82 million of free cash to be added to the $300 million already existing cash cushion that we traditionally keep. The third point is that the locked-in contracted future revenue has now gone over the $4 billion mark, excluding profit shares. And lastly, which is very important, 22 of our vessels are taking full advantage of the high rates in the spot markets through profit share as we speak. So all the above, I believe, guarantee a continued strong performance going forward. And with this, I give the floor to Nikolas Tsakos.

Thank you, Chairman. Good morning, good afternoon to everybody here from Athens -- from peaceful Athens, Greece. We just reported a very strong year, a year that has been a milestone period for TEN, a year in which we concluded significant strategic transactions for the future growth of the company and in very specific segments as the shuttle tanker and the dual fleet segment. The last quarter of 2025 has been a very strong quarter, and that was before the geopolitical events that started early in January, with the changes and the opening up of Venezuela, one of the largest traditional exporters of sweet crude to the west that has been lagging behind due to political reasons. The opening of Venezuela to the mainstream fleet like ours, we were the first vessel under a several charter to transport the first, let's call it, legal export to the United States after the change of the political environment there. And soon after that, of course, we have the issues in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden that have made it even further -- have even further strengthened spot rates to levels that at least our generation has never seen before. And I think these are the highest levels ever recorded in recent times. In this environment, TEN has been able to conclude very successfully 2025 and is taking advantage of the very strong rates that we are facing since the beginning of the year. In the meantime, we were able to disinvest some of our older tankers, putting aside in excess of $100 million to our cash reserves and reducing significantly our debt. And we were, I would say, lucky enough with a very good timely orders of our VLCCs at what today look -- our 3 VLCCs at what…

Thank you, Nikolas. We are pleased to report today on another profitable quarter and year. Before reflecting on the company's performance of last year, a few words for the current events unfolding in the Middle East and the Arabian Gulf. Shipping faces another geopolitical event in the Arabian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait of Hormuz sits on one of the world's busiest shipping routes, acting as a gateway to the oil and gas fields, refineries and terminals of the Arabian Gulf. 1/5 of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas passes through this narrow strait. It's a vital shipping lane for dry bulk commodities as well. Spot rates across all tanker vessel classes have spiked at levels far above the already strong rates in existence prior to the start of operation, Epic Fury. Substitute barrels from the U.S.A., Venezuela, Brazil, Guyana and West Africa are expected to benefit tanker rates and ton-mile demand. When the conflict started last Saturday, we had 3 vessels under time charter approaching the Arabian Gulf. We monitor 24/7 and follow the advice and updates of maritime security centers, flag, state, P&I and insurance underwriters. In coordination with our charterers, we assess the risk associated with any potential assets through this high-risk area. None of our vessels have entered for now this area, and they are kept outside the Strait of Hormuz. Charterers consider diverting some or all of them to other loading areas outside of the Arabian Gulf. Our foremost concern remains the safety and well-being of our seafarers on board these vessels and all those vessels that are in proximity and the structural integrity of our assets. Even without the latest geopolitical events, tanker markets have remained healthy during the course of last year. Energy majors continue to approach our company…

Thank you, George. Harrys?

Thank you, George. So let's start with a review of the year 2025. So with 2025 starting on the whim with an avalanche of global tariffs and tit-for-tat actions by China on U.S. proposed port fees, measures that were subsequently revised or suspended, all in the backdrop of ever-growing geopolitical turmoil, the tanker markets remained elevated and oil majors increased their long-term cargo requirements. To this effect, TEN through to its tried and tested operating model of seeking long-term cover provided the vessels required for its blue-chip clientele to meet its needs. This operational tweak, however, did not hinder the fleet from taking advantage of the equally strong but more erratic spot market as it had a good complement of vessels benefiting from trading spot. In particular, with the fleet in the water averaging 62 vessels identical to 2024, days under secure revenue employment, that is vessels on time charters and time charters with profit sharing provisions increased by 12.6%, while days on spot declined by 33%. Of interest, during 2025, days on profit sharing contracts alone increased by 12.4% from 2024, highlighting TEN's commitment to adding another layer of employment to benefit from the very lucrative spot market. Today, 1/3 of our fleet, that is 22 vessels, 9 on pure spot and 13 on profit sharing contracts are directly impacted by the historical strong spot market. As a result of this employment shift, during 2025, TEN generated close to $800 million in gross revenues and $252 million in operating income, which incorporated $12.5 million of capital gains from the sale of 4 older vessels. Capital gains during the equivalent 2024 12 months were up $49 million from the sale of 5 vessels. In line with the above employment pattern and fewer vessels on dry dock compared to 2024, 10…

Thank you, Harrys, for having so many positive numbers. I will allow you to make long presentations as long as the numbers are positive because -- well, as we said, the fourth quarter was only the beginning of the end, I would say, of a very fruitful year for 2025, a year that we have been able to establish a renewal -- a significant renewal of the fleet. We have been able to take and absorb the new acquisitions of the Viken fleet, which we did earlier fully in the company. And we were able to have an increase of our utilization to close to 98%, which I think this is really something that we want to congratulate also the operation department of Tsakos Shipping and Trading for keeping the ships -- the propellers earning almost 100% of the day. And this figure includes dry dockings and special surveys. So it's really, I think, the highest utilization in the company's history. And the beginning of '26, we had, I would say, surprises mainly on the geopolitical front. We have the change and the lifting of sanctions from Venezuela, which has allowed companies like ourselves to be able to participate even more in that -- in those trades. And of course, recently, the events in the Persian Gulf which have created spot rates or have led to spot rates and prices of oil that we have not seen for a generation. The company is very well prepared to navigate such a tremulous environment. And as Mr. Saroglou showed us in our earlier slide, I think the company comes stronger out of every crisis. I think most of you listening are too young to remember most of the crisis that we have been -- that we have gone through in the last -- 7 crisis in the last 30-odd years, but the company has been able to build and build further. And I think this graph is very evident that the Harrys, next time don't forget you have 12.5% growth that we usually have to show that the company has been growing year after year regardless of difficult markets. Another important factor we have increased the dividend. We paid the last part of our dividend in February and we're looking to reward shareholders accordingly as we move forward. A lot of question marks. We're actually focusing on the safety of our seafarers, as Mr. Saroglou said and also protecting our assets and the cargoes in our assets. We are going through situations that we have not seen in a generation. But we are well prepared to be able to take advantage of that. And with that, I would like to open the floor and also to thank the Chairman for his good words earlier to any questions. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Climent Molins with Value Investor's Edge.

I wanted to start by asking about the 2 LNG carrier orders you announced today. Could you talk a bit about whether you're already in discussions for long-term charter employment. And if so, what duration are you targeting?

Yes. I mean, there is -- as I said, the LNG segment is a segment that we have been participating from a very early stage back in 2007. However, I think for good reasons, we have never overextended ourselves in investing in that segment. We always want to participate in new ships and new technologies, and that's what we have done. And with these ships, it's too early to charter long term, but there is a lot of appetite going forward. So I think this is more as a long-term investment for this growing segment of the business rather than something that we have done with a charter in mind.

All right. Makes sense. I also wanted to ask about the [indiscernible]. Could you talk about how the index-linked portion is calculated? Is it benefiting from the surge in spot rates we've seen in recent days?

The [indiscernible] on a profit sharing arrangement based on trading routes of the Far East, end of Transatlantic. So of course, it's participating in this situation and the current employment ends in about 8 months. And of course, there is a significant appetite for such a [ prong ] ship going forward.

That's helpful. As I understand it, you very recently fixed 2 MR2 new builds that were delivered earlier this year. Are they employed at fixed rates or at variable hire? And if it's the former, at what rate are they employed?

We cannot tell you all the secrets. You have to call Mr. Kosmatos. When you see him in New York, you can ask Mr. Kosmatos. He's only allowed to write this in a piece of paper and secretly hand it to you under the table. But they are -- I would say, they are fixed rates, and they're very, very accretive in the mid- to high 20s. That's all I can say. And I think these are the highest that those ships have been fixed -- these type of ships have been fixed in the recent months or at least this is what our chartering department tells us.

Makes sense. Harrys, we definitely need to catch up soon.

Looking forward to it, gentleman.

Yes. I also have a question on the shuttle tanker newbuilds. We've seen some of your peers getting very good financing terms and support from the Korean export agency. Is this something we should kind of expect on your shuttle tanker orders as well?

Of course. Of course, I mean, we are one of the biggest supporters of South Korean yards and all the -- we try to keep all -- we are currently to the Herculean task of our newbuilding department. We had site offices in all the major South Korean yards. So we have a very big site office in Samsung as big in Hanwha, the ex Daewoo, and of course, a big one in Hyundai, which we never stopped having versus perhaps if you recall, we just took delivery of our last vessel there in October. So we keep on maintaining very hands-on site offices in this -- in all of them. And of course, we get the appreciation from the Korean banking system. And I think our team has concluded one of the largest syndications for the finance of those vessels at very, very competitive terms.

That's good to hear. And final question from me. Big picture, 2026 has started very strongly for you and both earnings and free cash flow are set to rise very significantly. Could you talk a bit about how you think about your capital allocation priorities? How do you plan to balance deleveraging fleet renewal and increase shareholder returns going forward?

Well, I think, as we said, our -- we make sure that we are securing the well-being of the company long term. And as we speak, I think as we see today, [indiscernible] accounted, I think that by the end of the first and second quarter, we might be in excess of $0.5 billion in liquidity, which means that our priority is the reward of our shareholders, which we are the largest ones as the management. And then, of course, we would be allocating our newbuilding program is almost fully financed, as I said, with the recent syndication. So rewarding our shareholders, reducing debt significantly. And we might be looking at next year, April next year to actually repurchasing some of our very, very usual preferreds.

Our next question comes from the line of Poe Fratt with Alliance Global Partners.

Yes. I was trying to isolate the impact of the profit sharing agreements that you had in the spot market exposure on the increase in voyage revenue in the fourth quarter versus the third quarter. Can you quantify the impact of the increase in the TCE rate. What was the exposure to the spot market versus the contribution from profit sharing?

Well, we did see a lot of profit sharing coming in later -- well, throughout '25, and we are beginning to see recently. And actually, a number of our vessels have been rechartered on higher elevated floor rates to what they were previously. Just to give you an idea, over and above the fixed rate that I mentioned earlier in the fourth quarter of '25, we got an additional $27 million from the profit sharing income that came in. So obviously, we did have some benefit. It seems that the numbers will -- I mean they look that we are moving in the right direction and perhaps to recall the similar amounts of additional income going forward. So again, $27 million over and above the flow rate on those profit sharing vessels in the fourth quarter.

Yes. That's a significant amount. I mean, this is almost like 50% of the profitability of the fourth quarter. So it's not -- it's -- the profit arrangements have huge contribution being $27 million on $58 million of profit.

Yes, that's exactly what I was looking for. And so there were some -- there was a positive increase on some of rechartering or recontracting the time charters that you had. And when you look at the first quarter and looking maybe at the first half of the year, my sense is that rates started to move in the fourth quarter, but the really significant move is more in the February time frame. And obviously, it's a little early just because of what's going on in the Middle East. But is there an additional step-up that we should see in the first quarter in profit sharing?

Yes. I mean, the way things are today, I think the profit sharing has gone off the chart because of -- and as Harrys said, I mean, for example, we had the categories of ships that we would profit share for anything above $20,000 a day. And the next fixture was anything about $35,000 a day. So you understand that we made sure that we pushed the fixed part of the profit sharing as high as possible for as long as possible and then the profit sharing goes. So yes, I think the first quarter, it's going to be another step up from where we left the fourth quarter.

And I think of interest, Poe, is that from the 13 vessels that we currently have on profit sharing, 7 are Suezmaxes and 2 are VLs.

Yes. So they're actually the big boys of profit sharing.

Yes. I was going to say and that's where you're seeing the meaningful increases. Maybe it will still [ flip ] down to the smaller sizes, but at this point in time, your exposure to the larger segments is -- or larger sectors is really good. When you look at the decision to sell the [ B ], what -- how did you -- was this an inquiry from somebody as far as trying to -- there's been a big acquirer out there, was there an inquiry that came in that led you to hit the bid? Or was this part of your strategic fleet renewal? And then if you could talk about what other potential assets are on the block that we could see sold in 2026, that would be helpful.

Yes. I mean there's always -- it takes 2 to tango. So it was not that we were out. I mean, our philosophy has always been that we're looking to sell any vessel which is between 10 and 15 years old. As you very well know, there have been people who have been buying these assets at prices that make a huge sense. I think we were, I would call it, lucky enough in November to order 3 VLs of Hanwha at prices of today. And just to put it in perspective, the newbuilding, so we show -- we ordered those ships. I think it has been reported at $128 million. And we sold the 10-year-old ship, which if you equate, it's a newbuilding price, it's in excess of $170 million. So it doesn't -- it's always good to take advantage of these possibilities. And the good thing is that we are going to be using the ship up to almost the middle of the year since we're taking advantage right now in a huge way of the big market -- of the spot market. And we're going to be selling here and delivering here back to the new owners sometime in June, end of May, June. So in a sense, we were able to have our [indiscernible] for the first 6 months.

Yes, that was a pretty timely rollover as far as just the [ issues ] went open in the, I guess, December time frame. Just go back to, if you wouldn't mind, the chartering strategy, profit sharings kicked in, you see a step-up in the first quarter, probably the second quarter too. Where do you get more aggressive in trying to lock in the higher rates?

We are always -- I mean, we have set an evident step-up in all categories of the vessels. And as long as we are able to have the profit sharing arrangement, which is something that very few others do, we should keep it that way. You've seen on Slide #7 on Page 7, you see our breakevens, which I think are very, very competitive. I mean, we have an all-in breakeven for VLs up to $28,000. Today, they're averaging above $100,000, including the profit sharing. So there's a little profit to make there. Suezmax is breakeven of everything at $25,000. I think we're closer to $80,000. Aframax is $21,000 -- well, Aframax and LR2s, if you put them together, about $22,500. Again, we're in the $70,000s and $80,000s there. our Panamaxes, which are our oldest segment in the $18,000 and I think that's where we got the $30,000-plus profit share arrangements. So those are in the money. Our Handysizes are down to $10,000, which means there are actually operating expenses and some interest since they're very, very well amortized. The LNGs -- and our shuttle tankers are also very much into the money at $34,000 time charter. So when we can make sure that we get covering our minimum significantly, then we do the profit share. I think Page #7 portrays, Mr. George, what Mr. -- our President has put up on the board.

Yes, that's helpful. And if I may, one more question. Obviously, the turmoil in the Middle East just had an impact on rates. But the other side of the question is, right now, and I know you don't have any tankers in Hormuz way. But what are you expecting on the insurance expense side? And then also how much exposure do you have to higher fuel costs as we look at the rest of 2026?

This is actually a very good point. I think we have had in the last week a 500% increase on insurance on war risk insurance. I think from what we used to do it at $0.15 per deadweight ton, we're up to close to $1 now or $0.75 to a $1. So that's a huge increase. It's 500%. Of course, all this is paid directly by the charter. So it does not really influence -- it's not -- it's a pass-through cost for us. But it shows how the market rates this risk. As far as our fuel costs, I mean, we have -- first of all, we have close to 25% of our existing requirements covered, George, for the next couple of years at very competitive rates. But also being mainly on a time charter basis, all the fuel cost surges or not affects our clients. So we do not have that. I mean we have a huge fleet, but being on time charter, the risk of the surge or drop of the bunker costs are taken up by the charters in a very big way.

Great. And I'm sorry, if I may squeeze one last one in. What's your dry docking schedule for the rest of the year?

Okay. We are starting quite live for the first quarter. We only have 2 vessels, 2 Suezmaxes for Q1. We have 5 vessels in the second quarter, 7 vessels in the third quarter and 3 vessels in the fourth quarter.

Hopefully, we will be able to see you in New York next week.

And we have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. Now I'd like to turn the floor back to CEO, Mr. Nikolas Tsakos for closing remarks.

Well, thank you for participating and listening in to our 2025 end of the year results. It has been a productive year. Your support has been appreciated. We have seen significant, I think, close to 60% increase of share price in the last year, which shows the trust that the public markets are putting on TEN. And hopefully, this is only the beginning. We have seen, again, a very steady trading and a very positive trading of our preferreds. The company would maintain its distribution policy of keeping shareholders -- of rewarding shareholders. We are going through a period of uncertainty in the world. And what we try to do with them is to take as much of this uncertainty possibly out through our chartering policy, which is always to the most blue-chip end users out there. And with that, we want again to thank you. Wish you a good weekend. And hopefully, we'll see you in New York next week. Thank you.

Thank you. And this concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. We thank you for your participation. Have a great day.