Stealthgas Reports 3Q Results

STEALTHGAS INC. (NASDAQ: GASS), a ship-owning company serving the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sector of the international shipping industry, announced today its unaudited financial and operating results for the quarter and nine months ended September 30, 2007. For the quarter ended September 30, 2007, net revenues amounted to $23.2m and net income was $4.0m an increase of $4.6m or 24.4% and an increase of $1.9m or 91.0%, respectively, from net revenues of $18.7m and net income of $2.1m for the quarter ended September 30, 2006. Basic and diluted earnings per share calculated on 20,574,635 basic weighted average number of shares and 20,633,070 diluted weighted average number of shares were $0.19 for the quarter ended September 30, 2007 as compared to earnings per share of $0.15, basic and diluted, calculated on 14,239,130 weighted average number of shares for the third quarter of 2006. Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter of 2007 was $9.7m, an increase of $2.3m or 30.5%, from $7.4m for the same period of 2006. A reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to Net Income and to Net Cash provided by operating activities is set forth below. For the third quarter of 2007, the Company reported a non-cash expense of $2.7m, which includes an unrealized, non-cash loss of approximately $1.7m on three previously disclosed interest rate swap arrangements and a provision of approximately $1.0m for restricted-stock portion of deferred stock-based compensation for the Company's employees and directors. This compares to an approximately $1.5m unrealized non-cash loss on three previously disclosed interest rate swap arrangements for the third quarter of 2006. Excluding these non-cash items, net income would have been $6.7m, or $0.33 per share, basic and diluted for third quarter 2007 as compared to $3.6m, or $0.25 per share, basic and diluted for the third quarter of 2006. An average of 35.1 vessels were owned by the Company in the third quarter of 2007, earning an average time-charter-equivalent rate of approximately $6,747 per day as compared to 28.0 vessels and earning an average of $6,675 per day for the same period of 2006.