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Adjusted EBITDA for the three months ended September 30, 2009 was $16.6 million, an increase of $3.1 million, or 23.0% from $13.5 million for the three months ended September 30, 2008. A reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to Net Income and to Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities is set forth below. Before the non-cash items discussed above, net income was $2.7 million, or $0.12 per share for the three months ended September 30, 2009, as compared to $6.3 million, or $0.28 per share, for the three months ended September 30, 2008, a decrease of $3.6 million or 57.1%. The decline in net income after non-cash items continues to be mainly attributable to lower revenues due to an increase in the number of idle days where vessels were unemployed and lower charter rates being obtained in the spot market, as well as increased costs mainly in voyage expenses as a consequence of an increase in the number of ships operating in the spot market compared to the same quarter in 2008. Net income was also adversely affected by a $1.8 million realized cash loss on interest rate swap arrangements for the three months ended September 30, 2009 as compared to a $1.1 million loss on these instruments in the same quarter for 2008. An average of 42.9 vessels were owned by the Company in the three months ended September 30, 2009, earning an average time-charter equivalent rate of approximately $6,564 per day as compared to 38.7 vessels, earning an average time-charter equivalent rate of $7,681 per day for the same period of 2008. Nine Months 2009 Results For the nine months ended September 30, 2009, voyage revenues amounted to $84.7 million and net income was $13.8 million, an increase of $0.3 million, or 0.4%, and a decrease of $8.4 million, or 37.8%, respectively, from voyage revenues of $84.4 million and net income of $22.2 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2008. For the nine months ended September 30, 2009 net income included a loss on the sale of vessel of $0.8 million compared to a profit of $1.7 million on the sale of vessels in the same period in 2008. Net income for the nine months ended September 30, 2009 net of the loss on the sale of vessel was $14.6 million compared to $20.5 million for the same period in 2008, excluding the gain of $1.7 million on the sale of vessels in that period. Basic and diluted earnings per share were $0.62 for the nine months ended September 30, 2009 as compared to basic earnings per share of $1.01 and diluted earnings per share of $1.00 for the nine months ended September 30, 2008. For the nine months ended September 30, 2009, the Company had a $3.4 million realized cash loss and a $1.5 million unrealized non-cash profit on interest rate swap arrangements and foreign currency hedging arrangements. This compares to a realized cash loss of $1.1 million and an unrealized non-cash loss on interest rate swap arrangements and foreign currency hedging arrangements of $1.4 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2008. Adjusted EBITDA for the nine months ended September 30, 2009 was $39.8 million, a decrease of $5.8 million, or 12.7%, from $45.6 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2008. A reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to Net Income and to Net Cash provided by operating activities is set forth below. Before non-cash items and the loss attributable to the sale of a vessel described above net income was $13.1 million or $0.59 per share for the nine months ended September 30, 2009, as compared to $22.0 million, or $0.99 per share for the nine months ended September 30, 2008, a decrease of $8.9 million or 40.5% excluding the gain on the sale of vessels in that period. An average of 41.8 vessels were owned by the Company in the nine months ended September 30, 2009, earning an average time-charter equivalent rate of approximately $6,840 per day as compared to 38.2 vessels, earning an average time-charter equivalent rate of $7,747 per day for the same period of 2008. CEO Harry Vafias commented “I am very pleased to report that we increased our EBITDA compared to the third quarter of last year which given current market conditions was I believe a highly commendable performance by the Company. Market conditions for our vessels continued to be challenging in the third quarter of 2009, though as seen from the charter statistics contained herein the rates achieved by our vessels held up relatively well given the continued sluggishness of economic activity, though not unexpectedly we have experienced some increased levels of commercial downtime. This relative steadiness of rates during the past year is what I believe underpins the financial strength of our company, along with the conservative structure of our balance sheet especially in regard to our leverage and the value of our fleet. As we move hopefully into a more positive economic climate later in 2010, led most probably by increased economic activity in the Far East, where we have the majority of our ships trading, we are cautiously hopeful that we will start to see some improvement in charter rates. In the meantime we continue to pay close attention to costs and to preserving adequate levels of liquidity in the business to negotiate what we expect will be continued challenges at least during most of 2010. Our continued solid performance in the face of severe economic challenges will hopefully be well received by the investment community and the market will further understand and give credit for the value that exists in the company, which in my opinion continues not to be reflected either by its market capitalization or various value matrixes.” CFO Andrew Simmons said “ We now have only one ship to be delivered to us in November 2009, thereafter we have no significant capital expenditures until the five LPGs we have ordered begin their deliveries to us in early 2011. These ships will begin to arrive in our fleet at a time of expected contraction in the overall size of the Handy Size LPG carrier fleet, and hopefully by then a worldwide economic recovery will be well underway. These factors should make these acquisitions to our fleet well timed. This relatively low level of capital expenditure over the next fifteen months will also help us to maintain a healthy level of liquidity going forward which we consider to be key in this environment. ” Quarterly Dividend: At today’s meeting, the Company’s Board of Directors decided to continue the suspension of dividend payments to shareholders. About STEALTHGAS INC. Headquartered in Athens, Greece, STEALTHGAS INC. is a ship-owning company primarily serving the liquified petroleum gas (LPG) sector of the international shipping industry. STEALTHGAS INC. currently has a fleet of 40 LPG carriers with a total capacity of 176,999 cubic meters (cbm) and three M.R. product tankers. In addition, the company has entered into agreements to acquire five new building LPG carriers with expected delivery from February 2011 through May 2012 and one resale new building M.R. product carrier with expected delivery in November 2009. Once these acquisitions are completed, STEALTHGAS INC.’S fleet will be composed of 45 LPG carriers with a total capacity of 206,999 cubic meters (cbm) and four M.R. product tankers with a total capacity of 190,500 deadweight tons (dwt). STEALTHGAS INC.’S shares are listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market and trade under the symbol “GASS”. StealthGas Inc. Press Release
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Stealthgas Inc. Reports Third Quarter And Nine Months 2009 Financial And Operating Results.