The Great Eastern Shipping Company

“So, we've sold 2 MR tankers replaced with 1 MR tanker, and we also bought a Kamsarmax dry bulk carrier.”

“Our fleet strategy is to replace, not expand. So for capacity expansion, we will wait for prices which we think will enable us to make a good return in the long term.”

“We believe that we'll be best served by holding on to the majority of the money rather than investing it in ships today.”

“Our vessels, we do have vessels which are coming close to the end of their lives. So we will continue switching vessels over the next few quarters.”

“So it is a bit ship specific, but it is largely guided by the age of the ship.”

“One rig is -- we have won the ONGC tender and we expect that to start.”

“Firstly, I think it is too soon to decide on a capex plan based on what the government is going to do. While they have showed intention, we have not seen on the ground any more further tenders coming from the government for rigs or offshore vessels.”

“Based on current spot rates, yes, we make significantly higher, maybe 25%, 30% higher than the previous charter rate -- previous fixed charter rate based on today's spot rate.”

“In general, our earnings are higher than they were, say, a year ago, also because of repricing of time charters that we have.”

“And we are largely covered for this financial year. So we'll look at how the repricing develop in the next financial year.”

“She's idle since end of April. She is -- we are trying to bid her for some short term -- or we are in discussions for some potential short-term business. Nothing has crystallized.”

“We saw freight rates going to all-time highs during the last quarter because of all the disruption which was caused in the Strait of Hormuz.”

“So MR earnings in the spot market were close to $50,000 a day last quarter.”

“The asset prices as a result of this, the asset prices did what is logical, and they went up further during the quarter, up about 5% to 10%.”

“Therefore, bulk carrier markets were slightly better than they were in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.”

“Therefore, asset prices also went up. Freight rates were in excess of $100,000 a day.”

“So if you compare the ship built in the 2020s compared to what was built prior to 2013, fuel savings could be up to maybe 20%, 25%. And then depending on the size of the ship, it can translate from $1,000 to maybe even $2,000, $2,500 per day on the earnings.”

“This is a debt which gets paid down over the next 2 years. Our last debt comes off in Nov’28.”

“We have been net cash for the last almost 4 years, now more than 3 years.”

“So let's start with -- we have $700 million in cash in Great Eastern Shipping. about $600 million net of the debt.”

“Our rupee balances are invested in debt funds or bank deposits typically. So we don't have any exposure to U.S. treasuries.”

“We also announced our 18th consecutive interim dividend of INR 14.40/share, again, our highest ever quarterly dividend.”

“We don't have a policy as such, which is on a target or a target price or a target multiple.”

“If we haven't announced one, we are waiting.”

“yes, so the short answer to the question is the regulatory and tax burdens or disadvantages which existed for buybacks have gone now.”

“It will be discussed at the Board and it will be treated like any other capital allocation decision where we look at the other options available and decide on it.”

“Last quarter, we had a INR50 crores spillover from Q4 to Q1. This time, it's not really significant.”

“And we actually took an impairment on some of those ships because the prices dropped by 20% in that period.”

“The order book now for crude tankers is at 27%. The order book for VLGCs is currently at 35%, which is a huge number for product tankers continues to be at about 20%, 21%, while bulk carriers are at about 14%, having picked up from about 10% to 12%.”

“So, as we get further into this cycle, the chances of the market coming off due to oversupply increase.”

“So all the ships that had to come out of the Strait have already come out. We have one ship in the Strait currently, but she's on time charter to ADNOC.”

“After our ships came out, we have not gone into that area.”

“In the Panama Canal, while it's not been a large impact, we have seen certain water levels starting to drop off.”

“The consolidated profit is INR1,309 crores, while the stand-alone profit is INR1,157 crores.”

“We've had our most profitable quarter ever by a significant margin.”

“So stand-alone NAV is about INR 1,512/share and consolidated is just short of INR 1,900/share.”

“Just a short overview, 40 ships with an average age of 14.5 years, 19 offshore vessels and 4 rigs.”

“About 25-26% of our capacity is currently on time charter.”