Star Bulk Carriers Posts USD 23.9 mln Profit 4Q
Greece-based Star Bulk Carriers Corp. sailed into a net profit of USD 23.9 mln for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2017 from a loss of USD 33.1 mln during the same quarter of the previous year.
Petros Pappas, Chief Executive Officer of Star Bulk, said: “I am very pleased that Star Bulk returned to profitability after 3 challenging years, reporting $90.0 million in TCE Revenues, $55.7 million in Adjusted EBITDA and $21.5 million in Net Income for the quarter ended December 31, 2017."
"This performance is underpinned by an average TCE of $13,860/day per vessel with 100% fleet utilization, and average Opex and Net Cash G&A expenses per vessel of $3,850/day and $1,094/day respectively. We have fixed 86% of available ship days for Q1 2018 at average TCE rates of $12,700/day," he added.
Petros further said: "Having terminated the amortization holiday under our restructuring agreements 6 months ahead of schedule, we repaid $35.6 million in February 2018 through our cash sweep mechanism, and hope to fully pay down the deferred amounts by the end of this year. We continue to look for attractive consolidation opportunities and remain optimistic about the remainder of 2018.”
Star Bulk Carriers took delivery of the Newcastlemax vessel Star Eleni (ex- HN 1342), with carrying capacity of 207,810 deadweight tons, built at SWS on January 3, 2018. The vessel is financed under a bareboat charter in the amount of $30.0 million.