Harry Vafias-led StealthGas has reported an all-time record quarterly net income of $25.8m for the second quarter of 2024, a 145.8% increase compared to last year’s second quarter.
Revenues were also increased by 13.9% compared to the same period of last year to $41.8m.
Specifically, revenues for the three months ended June 30, 2024 amounted to $41.8m compared to revenues of $36.7m for the three months ended June 30, 2023, based on an average of 27.0 vessels and 30.5 vessels owned by the company, respectively, as the vessels remaining in the fleet earned higher revenues due to better market conditions.
Revenues were also increased by 13.9% compared to the same period of last year to $41.8m.
The company’s net income for the three months stood at $25.8m, compared to the net income of $10.5m for the three months ended June 30, 2023.
Meanwhile, the company announced charter extensions of three or more months duration for its LPG carrier Eco Oracle, LPG carrier Gas Alice, LPG carrier Eco Invictus, LPG carrier Gas Cerberus, LPG carrier Gas Elixir, LPG carrier Eco Blizzard, LPG carrier Eco Royalty, and for its LPG carrier Eco Alice.
As it is reported, the company has total contracted revenues of approximately $220m.
For the remainder of the year 2024 StealthGas has circa 85% of fleet days secured under period contracts and 55% for the year 2025.
Harry Vafias, chief executive officer of StealthGas, said: “Today we announce yet another record breaking quarter. Profits that were more than double compared to last year of $25.8 million for the second quarter of 2024 are an all time high for our company in the 20 years since its inception.
“While we managed to contain our operating costs we took full advantage of a strong chartering market fixing vessels at higher rates during that and previous quarters whose benefits we are enjoying now. The bottom line was furthered bolstered by the return from our investments related to the sale of a vessel by one of our joint ventures.
“We continue with the strategy of debt reduction and in the current quarter we have so far repaid over $21 million of debt and now have 24 unencumbered vessels, the vast majority of the fleet, and a net debt ratio below 5%.
“Market sentiment continues to be bullish and as we leave the seasonally weaker third quarter and enter into the winter months we are starting to see a strengthening in the market and, as a positive sign, interest from charterers to fix for longer than one year periods.
“As such we have recently fixed a number of longer charters that we announced today, bringing the contract coverage to 55% for next year, while all of our 27 fully owned vessels are currently fixed under period charters.”
