Good morning, and welcome to today's presentation of Gram Car Carriers Results for Third Quarter 2023. My name is Georg Whist, and I'm the CEO of Gram Car Carriers. As usual, I'm joined by our CFO, Gunnar Koløen. Today, we are visiting our customer, NYK's terminal in Zeebrugge, and as you can see, it's a busy terminal with several ships unloading and a lot of cargo on the deck. This is their brand-new, really fancy ICO terminal. To summarize, we deliver now our seventh consecutive quarter with increased earnings and dividends in line with our strategy. This is driven by charter contracts at higher day rates in a strong car shipping market. Gram Car Carriers, we are the world's third-largest car carrier tonnage provider, with a clear commitment to provide attractive shareholder distributions. The board has approved a Q3 dividend of $0.645 per share, up 37% from Q2. We have increased daily time charter earnings for distribution and Panamax vessels, which are driving our higher net profit. We have a record fixed revenue backlog now of $908 million, which provides good, long-term, very visible earnings. We execute several vessel transactions that have created additional value and dividend capacity. The market outlook remains positive with continued high charter rates and demand for long contract durations. We distribute $18.7 million for Q3, which equals 75% of net profit. $0.645 per share is a 37% increase from the $0.47 we distributed in Q2. This reflects the higher earnings as vessels start on new contracts with the higher day rates. We distribute our capital in a tax-efficient manner by way of repayment of capital. We have a clear dividend commitment since joining the Euronext Growth in January 2022, and we are delivering on this, distributing $50.8 million total, including our Q3. The annualized Q3 distribution implies a 14% dividend yield. Dividend is set to increase as a function of the earnings locked in through our contract backlog. According to the analysts and their consensus, this indicates that 18% dividend yield at current share price for 2024 and 2025. End-user demand for cars remains strong, with even the recent increase in the forecast. Volumes are expected now to be back at pre-COVID levels next year in 2024, and we see a continued shortage of vessels. Charter rates, they are now stabilized at record high levels. The Q3 revenue was $54.9 million, up from $48 million in Q2. EBITDA was $40.5 million, up from $32.9 million in Q2. This reflects increased time charter earnings for distribution and Panamax vessels. The latter, reflecting the Viking Bravery, which started its new contract in the beginning of July. Net profit was $24.9 million, equaling $0.86 per share, of which we return 75% to our shareholders. Our backlog has been increasing with a 5-year fixing of Viking Queen and the acquisition of Mediterranean Sea, and of course, less than the, the recognized income for the quarter. The fixed revenue backlog provides good earning visibility, with an average contract duration now of 3.5 years. Our time charter, break even remains stable. Gram Car Carriers, we're a strong industry name. With more than 40 years engagement in the car carrier industry. We have extensive experience from chartering vessels to all major global operators and key regional operators worldwide. We're headquartered in Oslo, and together with our Singapore office, we manage a modern fleet of car carriers. We listed on Oslo Børs Main Market since mid-December 2022, and the Gram Car Carriers shares commenced trading on the OTCQX Best Market in New York in June this year, and there you'll find us on the ticker GCCRF. The car industry is one of the world's largest industries, and we are an integral part of their logistic chain. We charter our vessels to the operators, who in turn, sees some volume contracts with the manufacturers. Let's take a couple of example. Glovis, they operate a service of about 90 ships. They own 30 ships themselves, and they charter in about 60 ships from tonnage providers like us. NYK, MOL, K Line, each have about a 100 vessel service. They own about 2/3 of this themselves. They charter in about 1/3 of that. Wilhelmsen, on the other hand, on the scale, they only charter in about 10%. They own 90% themselves. So, Gram Car Carriers, we are a preferred partner who deliver a consistently high quality service, which meets all the stringent quality measures set by the car manufacturers. We have a service with three main types of vessels. We have the distribution vessels, serving regional markets like Northern Europe, Caribbean, between Mexico and the U.S. We have the mid-size vessels, serving the North-South trade lanes and trade intra-continents. Then we have the Panamax vessels, serving East-West trade lanes, crossing all the canals and the major oceans. We own now a fleet of 19 vessels after we delivered the distribution vessel Viking Constanza to its new owner in October. We operate on commercial management four new buildings for Global Auto Carriers. We also create value through asset transaction, which we focus on accretive growth and fleet optimization. We executed two vessel transactions in Q3. Effectively, what we've been doing, we've been selling a 13-year-old distribution vessels for a higher price than what we paid for a mid-size vessel of the same age. This confirms that we, there are prices where we sell and there are prices where we buy, always optimizing shareholder return as our focus. The transaction supports dividend capacity through sale gains and increased backlog. The book gain for Viking Constanza was $13 million and is recognized in Q4 this year. Our strategy of owning and operating a modern fleet is also kept in mind. This confirms our ability to capture additional value in a historic strong car shipping market. I'll now hand over to you, Gunnar, for some of the financial highlights. Thank you, Georg. So, we continue to deliver quarter-on-quarter revenue and earnings growth, which is in line with expectations as higher rates on new contracts materialize. The average time charter rate for the fleet was $31,370 in the third quarter, and this is up $2,600 compared with the last quarter. This reflects higher average day rates for the distribution and Panamax vessels. And we had the full impact of the new contracts for Viking Odessa and City of Oslo, the two distribution ships in third quarter. And we also delivered the Viking Bravery to the new charter end of July, so that she is now earning $64,900 per day. We're expecting the next increase in the Panamax average rate next year when Viking Queen start on the new contract that we just recently announced. Operating expenses are developing in line with expectations, and the cash break-even rate for the fleet is unchanged from last quarter. Utilization was at 98%. We had 28 planned off-hire days for the Viking Bravery in connection with the scrubber installation, which was completed in July. We had 7-day unplanned off-hire days in connection with the [Hurricane Caribia] incident that we mentioned in the last quarter presentation. We're expecting around 30 days off-hire end of end of Q4 or beginning of Q1 to carry out some repairs on this vessel. As per end of September, we're reporting a record revenue backlog at $908 million. We added $132 million of new contracts this quarter, $114 million from the 5-year fixing of Viking Queen, and another $18 million as a result of the Mediterranean Sea acquisition. We see a lot of interest on the Viking Amber, which is the next vessel open in Q1 next year, sorry, Q2 next year. Open capacity for 2024 next year is now limited to the Viking Amber in 2024, Viking Passero and Mediterranean Sea in 2025. The overall contract duration for the fleet is 3.5 years, as Georg mentioned, with the Panamax duration now at 4.8 years, which is the part of the fleet with the higher earnings. Visibility on revenue is very good, which I'll get back to on the next slide. So, we've now signed more than $1 billion of new contracts since we did the listing in January 2022. The bar chart here on the right shows the backlog allocated over the next years, how we will recognize this backlog. And this quite clearly demonstrates the visibility we now have on revenue and earnings. The Amber fixing, which we are working on, will further add to this backlog. We continue to focus on longer charters, providing good visibility on cash flows and dividends to shareholders. Then looking at the key financials, revenue and earnings reflect continued strong operations. Revenue was up 13% this quarter compared with last quarter, at $54.9 million. EBITDA and net profit is up 23% and 37% respectively, as vessel operating expenses and admin expenses were lower in third quarter compared to second quarter. The board has approved it paid 75% of net profit as dividend, in line with our revised dividend policy, announced last quarter. And this will be paid out of share premium account. Cash flow from operating activities was $45.4 million in third quarter, which was up from $38 million last quarter. As at 30th of September, we have a net interest-bearing debt EBITDA ratio of 2.1. And once this leverage ratio go down below 1.5, which we're expecting next year, then the margin on our main credit facility will reduce from the current level at 2.4%- 2.25%. With that, I'll hand it back to you, Georg, to talk about the market. Thank you, Gunnar. So, charter rates have stabilized at record levels for Panamax and mid-size vessels, while rates for distribution vessels continue to reflect very limited availability. Out of the 180 vessels, which is owned by the tonnage providers, there are no vessels open for recontracting for the remainder of this year. Total open positions for 2024 for recontracting is also limited to 23% vessels currently open, and this includes new buildings. So, it's very few, very limited, and it looks very tight. For comparison, 23 vessels have been fixed so far this year, 65 vessels were done last year, and pre-COVID, normally, there was about a 100 fixings per annum. So, this shows how tight and how few vessels are really available next year for operators. Looking into 2025, it's the same picture. So the conclusion must be that the market remains tight. Expectations for global auto sales were increased in September, despite high interest rates and fear of recession. Volume growth is expected in 2023 and 2024, despite high economic uncertainty, lower growth expectations, weaker consumer confidence in the U.S. and Europe, and geopolitical conflicts. However, we are coming from historic subdued levels. New car sales are now expected to be back at pre-COVID levels next year in 2024. Auto manufacturers continue to prioritize their export models. And as you can see, U.S. inventories of imported brands remain near record low at around 20 days inventory. China's exports continue to grow at record high and heavy volumes, gives a tight market for car carriers. In sum, we're looking at a prolonged firm market. The market is driven by increased ton-mile demand, with rapidly growing export from Asia to the world. Asian vehicle producers, led by China, but supported by South Korea and Japan, are set to grow their export by an estimated 43% in 2023 versus the pre-COVID levels of 2019. They're taking market share and outcompeting European seaborne export, driving up average sailing distances. The increase from 2019 to 2023 is more than four million cars of export from Asia to the world markets. This translate into about 114 Panamax vessel demand. More than 50% of expected 2023 export is from Asia, is heading for North America and Europe. This is driving up ton-mile demand and explains the current tight market. China has rapidly established itself as the second largest, and soon the largest car exporter in the world. The current export run rate indicates 4.8 million vehicles shipped annually, up from 3.25 million shipped in 2022. Electric cars share for the last 12 months is about 32%. China is expanding its position as the global electric vehicle powerhouse, and this will drive further ton-mile demand growth. Driven by both Chinese car brands growing internationally and international car brands such as Tesla, followed by Volkswagen, BMW, Volvo, and General Motors, which are all investing in production in China. China is benefiting from an established battery electric value chain. They have modern production facilities, modern port infrastructure, a well-established auto parts supply chain, including EV batteries, and of course, a large skilled and cost-efficient workforce. High and Heavy demand remains strong, with high volumes and strong backlog in 2023. All the main sectors, agriculture, mining, and construction, are experiencing high demand. This is high-paying cargo, which lifts demand overall for car carriers. There is a clear shortage of car shipping capacity at the moment. We're matching AIS, AIS data, tracking all car carriers departing from Asian ports with customs data from the same regions, both for new cars and high and heavy. We estimate a deficit of approximately 1.7 million units in the eight months from January to August this year. To get these cars to market, the manufacturer must utilize inefficient and unwanted transport methods, such as containers, dry cargo vessels with racks, and even multipurpose vessels. These suboptimal solutions are predominantly used to carry used cars from Japan and Korea, and low double-digit% of new cars from China. Closing this gap out of Asia on an annualized basis would require an additional 85 car carriers. We continue to see favorable supply side, despite the recent increase in the order book to above historic average levels. This is a response to the strong market fundamentals. The current market fundamentals are set to continue to support a long-term, strong market. The net fleet growth has been negative since 2014. So far, only five newbuildings have been delivered this year. The age profile of the fleet indicates also a substantial recycling potential. Further vessels are needed to meet growing demand, replacement requirements, and reduce fleet efficiency due to environmental regulation requirements. To sum up, Gram Car Carriers, we are a unique pure-play investment opportunity. We are experiencing very attractive market fundamentals, and we have been, and we are capturing this strong market through fixtures and value-adding vessel transactions. We have good visibility on growing earnings and cash generation, and we're committed to delivering attractive dividends to our shareholders on a quarterly basis. Thank you for listening from wonderful Zeebrugge, and now I will hand over to August for the Q&A session. Thank you, Georg. As usual, we will have a Q&A session here, so if you have any questions online, you can type them into the function here at Invite People. So we have received quite a few ones, starting, I guess, with maybe Viking Amber, the next vessel coming open Q2 next year. You showed in the presentation very few vessels open globally, so how are contract negotiations progressing here, and what kind of terms do you expect for the vessel? So we are in discussions with several of our customers on that vessel at the moment. As I showed on the slide, there's only 23 ships open next year, so there is a decent line outside our door who wants to talk about that vessel, and we expect to announce contracts on that vessel to the market over the next weeks or at least before Christmas. Okay, thank you. And then one here that says, "With contract activity slowing down going forward, what will be the next focus for the company? Growth, fleet optimization? If so, is Global Auto Carriers a potential M&A candidate? Yeah, so the answer to that question is all of it. I mean, we are obviously working on. And now that we have secured this wonderful, fixed, visible cash flow, of course, we are working very hard to make sure that all the ships are running smoothly, that our customers are happy with the service they're paying top dollar for. So, we will, of course, spend a lot of time making sure that that part of the business is intact. We're constantly looking and calculating various transactions. We've said all along, we will have a discussion with Global Auto Carriers once those vessels are fixed. We will have a serious discussion on that, and if we can agree a deal with those shareholders at a neutral or accretive valuation to you and to our shareholders, we will go ahead with that. If we cannot agree, they will stay separate. Okay, thank you. And then one here saying, "We're seeing some deck cargo vessels being converted to car carriers. Do you see any disruption of such units to ease the tight market, especially within the distribution vessels? I think, I had on one of my slides, I showed the deficit. I mean, right now, in particular, Chinese producers have not really built up their strategic fleet of car carriers yet, so we are seeing suboptimal solutions. I spoke to one of the importers in Norway a couple of weeks back, and they are receiving now new cars in container boxes, and it's causing a lot of trouble. It's coming to the wrong port. When you open the container, there is no ventilation or humidity control, so you need to clean the cars thoroughly, spending, you know, $2,000-$3,000 on this. So, at the moment, the exporters don't have enough ships, so yes, you will see suboptimal solutions in this tight market. That just, you know, product needs to be moved, so you will see that. But once the newbuilding orders are delivering, I would fully expect some of these suboptimal solutions then to fade away again. Yeah, that makes sense. Then another, I guess, a kind of strategic question. "You've been active in both buying and selling vessels recently. What are you seeing in terms of S&P opportunities going forward? So, I mean, you know, as we tried to explain, is that we are agnostic to this. We will charter our ships, but if there are people out there who wants to buy vessels at elevated levels, which we don't see that can be defended by the current charter market, then we will sell. I mean, we are in the business of running a great operation, but of course, always with the shareholder in mind, making sure that we create shareholder value. So, we can sell, we can buy, we can charter. These are the tools available to us, but of course, with the customers, our customers in mind, giving them also a good service. Yeah. The next one here, "The freight cost per car has ramped up significantly. How do you see the cost difference between less efficient transporting, such as containers and racks? Do pure car carriers' freight rates have to move down significantly for these cargoes to return? No, as I said, I think the only reason there is suboptimal solutions like boxes and racks and stuff like that is being used is because there just isn't enough car carriers, and the manufacturers, and in particular in China, needs to move the cargo. They want product to market. So, they are paying almost whatever it takes, being in a box or being on a ship, as long as I get the product to market. So, it's not as easy, and it's not. The dynamic is not that you can sit and arbitrage and look at, oh, now it's a bit cheaper to put it in a box, because it's not cheaper when you take into account the entire cost from then cleaning up the car, the logistics is disrupted because you're getting the box into the wrong port. When you take the entire cost, car carriers is still the preferred solution by all the OEMs. Sounds good. And then, a question here that we've seen a few of the Oslo-listed companies do a listing in the U.S. recently, most recently yesterday with the Okeanis. You have also started trading on an exchange in New York, but is there any appetite to potentially uplist here, going forward, as you can perhaps achieve a better pricing on the dividend? Well, I think that's why we went for the OTCQX solution, and we've had one virtual conference with them so far. We're also going to New York in two weeks and having an investor day there. So to us, it's all about doing the heavy lifting. We need to do the marketing, whether you're an OTCQX or you're listed. I think our impulses and what we're working on right now is that we have a ticker in the U.S. We'll do the heavy lifting, we'll do the marketing, and then I think people will appreciate that and start pricing our stock a bit more aggressively on the dividend yield. If it turns out some, you know, further down the line that it's even better to list, well, we always look at optimizing and make sure we get the best pricing. But right now, we're only sort of four or five months into our OTCQX listing, so it's a bit early to start looking even at more advanced solutions. Okay. Just a reminder to everybody watching, if you have a question, please, type it into the Q&A function. We have a few more here, I think maybe, for Gunnar, this one. Costs came down during the quarter and was below estimates. Is there a particular reason for this? And should we expect that this level is maintained more or less going forward? So cost, in the last quarter, second quarter, we reported some non-recurring expenses. So basically, we have not had these non-recurring expenses. That's why it's come down to the level where we're expecting it to be. And the $6,000 for the smaller ships and $7,000 OPEX for the bigger mid-size and Panamax, which we have communicated previously, is what we're expecting for the rest of the year. And then next year, I think we will see OPEX in line with the general inflation, I think. Yeah. So, yeah. Sounds good. One on your debt facilities. Now that you've fixed out all of the Panamax, and obviously, as you explained, have a very nice backlog, is there any appetite to kind of refinance the current facilities or change them in any way? Yeah, so we have the two of the Panamax, the Adventure and the Viking Bravery, we have on a lease. So we will be looking at refinancing, or we are working on refinancing these two vessels now, I mean, with a solid backlog. We're expecting to obtain very competitive financing on those two ships. Okay, sounds good. Then as far as I can see, there are no further questions here. So unless there is any latecomers that have a question, you have to type quickly. Otherwise, I will give the word back to you guys. Okay, here we had one actually. Apart from the repair downtime, is the Caribia able to operate normally? Yes, she is working, she's operating at the moment, and we are, and so that's why there's been quite a long time between when the incident happened and when we are repairing end of this year. It's because we are preparing all, you know, all the bits and pieces, so it will be an efficient, quick dry dock. But the vessel is fully functional at the moment and is carrying cargo in the Caribbean. Okay, sounds good. And then a follow-up was just, will insurance cover the repair cost? Yes. All right. Nice and easy. Then, I think, okay, here, here's one with a smiley face, so I guess you can take it as you like, as our last question. But what do you see as a fair yield price for your stock? That's, of course, we have opinions about our own our own company and how it should be priced, but, I mean, with the now extremely visible and predictable cash flow, I think the current, as you said, the analysts have it at 18%. To me, that sounds rich. It should, but then I think we should expect as well as, we are just keep on delivering and sending dividend check, I would expect that to come down towards 10%-12%. And then you can, each one of you, and together with the analysts, can calculate what that means to share price. I will not be guiding on share price. Sounds good. Then there are no further questions, and I think we draw the line there. So please, if you have some final remarks, go. Yes. So, thanks, everyone, for listening, and we are super excited. As I said, we are here in Zeebrugge at the NYK terminal. We're going to go out and experience these facilities. And, thanks, everyone, for listening. We appreciate all existing shareholders, and welcome all new shareholders, and we'll stick to our promise. We'll keep sending those checks every quarter. So, we'll speak to all of you quite soon, I hope.
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