Good morning and welcome to the Ardmore Shipping Q4 and Full Year 2016 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Anthony Gurnee, Chief Executive Officer of Ardmore Shipping. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Jack. Good morning and welcome to Ardmore's fourth quarter earnings call. First, let me ask our CFO, Paul Tivnan, to describe the format for the call and discuss forward-looking statements.

Thanks, Tony and welcome everyone. Before we begin our conference call, I would like to direct all participants to our Web site at ardmoreshipping.com, where you will find a link to this morning's fourth quarter 2016 earnings release and presentation. Tony and I will take about 15 minutes to go through the presentation and then we will open up the call to questions. Turning to Slide 2, please allow me to remind you that our discussion today contains forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from the results projected from those forward-looking statements and additional information concerning factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements is contained in our fourth quarter 2016 earnings release, which is available on our Web site. And now, I would turn the call back over to Tony.

Thanks, Paul. So on the call today we will follow our usual format. First, discussing our performance and recent activity, then the product and chemical tanker markets. Paul will provide a fleet update and review our financial results in detail after which I will provide some concluding remarks and then we will open up the call for questions. So turning first to Slide 5 on our performance and recent activity. We reported earnings from continuing operations of $6.3 million for the full year of 2016 which includes a loss of $3.7 million in the fourth quarter. The difference between continuing operations and GAAP profit for 2016 is largely due to the net loss of $2.6 million relating to the sale of three vessels. Our spot performance started off strong in the first half of 2016 but the full year reflects a softer charter market in the second half with overall MR performance at $14,600 for the full year and chemical tanker performance of $15,400. During 2016 we took a number of important steps to position Ardmore to benefit from the long-term trends driving the market for MR products and chemical tankers. As part of this we acquired six MR tankers in June, receiving delivery of the last of these in November. Based on these deliveries Q1 '17 will be the first to fully benefit from our enhanced fleet profile. Also earlier in the year we refinanced substantially all of our debt on improved pricing and terms and towards the end of the year we completed an opportunistic refinancing of the Ardmore Seatrader under a sale and leaseback arrangement resulting in gross proceeds of $9.25 million. And we are maintaining our dividend policy of a payout of 60% of earnings from continuing operations. Consistent with our policy, we are not declaring…

Thanks, Tony. Moving to Slide 11, we will run through our fleet updates. Starting with the chart on the right, you will see that following the recent accretive acquisition of six MRs, our revenue days have increased by 13% for the full year in 2017 to 9727 days. In terms of drydocks, we had no drydock days in the fourth quarter and we expect to have 45 drydock days in the first quarter. As Tony highlighted, during the first quarter we took delivery of the Ardmore -- fourth quarter we took delivery of the Ardmore Enterprise on November 2, which was the last of the six eco-design MRs we acquired in the summer. We now have the full 27 ships in operation. Turning to Slide 13. As you can see in the middle of the page, we reported net income from continuing operations of $6.4 million, or $0.21 per share for the full year including a loss of $3.7 million or $0.11 per share for the fourth quarter. Earnings from continuing operations strips out any gains or losses on vessel sales in the period. The company reported adjusted EBITDA of $57 million for the full year, which represents a decrease of $14 million from 2015. Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter was $11 million. Moving to the bottom of the Slide, our operating cost for the year came in at $6,405 per day across the fleets including technical management. OpEx for the eco-design MRs was $6078 per day while the eco-design products chemical tankers came in at $6289. Our eco-mod MRs came in at 6,688 per day. Looking ahead, we expect total OpEx to be approximately $16 million for the first quarter. Depreciation and amortization for the fourth quarter was $9.2 million and we expect depreciation and amortization in the…

Thanks, Paul. So in summary then we are reporting earnings from continuing operations of $6.3 million for the full year which includes a loss of $3.7 million in the fourth quarter. MR charter rates were strong in the first half but softened in the second half as a result of declining demand due to high oil inventory levels, lower oil trading activity and further aggravated by the heavy pace of MR deliveries in the first half. Nevertheless, rates improved towards the end of the fourth quarter as a result of typical inter-market activity, indicating a close supply-demand balance. The most important short-term demand factor for MRs at the moment is the high level of refined product inventories but there is evidence that the draw down back to normal levels is now underway and once over should result in a jump in MR demand. We believe underlying demand growth remains robust in the 4% to 5% range driven by 1.3 million barrels a day oil consumption growth, ongoing refinery development away from points of consumption and increase in trade complexity. On the supply side the order book now stands at historical lows and net fleet growth should be in the region of 2% in 2017 and lower in 2018 and beyond until ordering activity resumes and ships begin delivering after a typical two year construction period. Based on the steps we have taken in 2016 to strengthen our balance sheet, fleet and earnings power, we believe Ardmore is well positioned to capture the charger market upside for our shareholders. Through a combination of a fully delivered, high quality fleet, our focus on spot charter and performance and cost efficiency, moderate leverage and significant earnings power, every $1000 a day equates to $0.29 in EPS and $0.17 in dividends per share. And with that, we are now pleased to open up the call for questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question will come from Mike Webber of Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Tony, I wanted to start off with a higher level question and then kind of dig into a couple of company specific things. But just with regards to the forward supply outlook and you mentioned restrained shipyard capacity. Certainly it seems like a relatively interesting dynamic and a big concentrated to the product space. Just curious, one, can you kind of fill out a figure around bit of ballpark, how impaired the MR production capacity actually is right now. And then, two, how long do you think we actually kind of sit at that level. We have heard [SDX] [ph] is marketing LR2 designs. Some of the guys that have been a bit impaired or kind of dead in the water might be starting to resurface. Just curious how impaired it is and how long you think that lasts.

Really the only yard that, in Korea, which is able to carry on with business as usual is Hyundai [indiscernible]. But they are severely constrained themselves because of the new financial discipline that’s being imposed. So I think whereas they might take in a few orders, just enough to keep things ticking over at currently marketed levels of 32 million-33 million, they are not going to do very much at that level. SPP [or rebuilds] [ph] sadly enough is almost completely shutdown now. Sungdong we believe is in slowdown significantly. SDX has gone through rehabilitation process and we understand they are marketing and we will see what they are able to do. But again they are under significant financial constraints. The big question for these yards is not whether they can find orders, it's whether they can afford to take them. Having said that, there aren't a lot of real open interests at the moment either. But the point is that it's not clear whether or not any yard other than Hyundai [depot] [ph] could take in orders below $32 million. And so we think that when you match that capacity against the ongoing requirement, if you are looking at a fleet of roughly 2000, now 2200 ships, in the MR space altogether and you figure on say 4% demand growth and ongoing scrapping, you need 8200 delivering a year. That’s how much is on order now. So we think that, look it's clear that if rates went back up to let's say $20,000-$25,000 a day and second hand values and resale got bid up, at some point newbuilding prices would also rise and it would put a number of these guys back in business. But that’s going to take a while and then you are going to have a roughly two year minimum delay before they would start really delivering in any kind of numbers.

Got you. That’s helpful. And kind of along those lines, as we start thinking about the industry potentially being caught a bit short on tonnage in some of the out years, we would expect to see charters starting to get a bit longer in terms of requests for term. I know you guys have kind of transitioned, I think you are 99% leveraged now in the spot market. It's part of that kind of strategic push. But, one, are you guys getting more inquiry for term business and if not, when do you think you would start to see that now interests are going to be.

There is activity but not at levels we would be interest in. And I think everybody is taking it fairly cautiously. It's the attitude right now.

Okay. That’s helpful. Just one more from me and I will turn it over. On the sale leaseback financial, just curious how deep a bid for that kind of business is there? I believe we are going [to build] [ph] a bit older. Just curious whether that something is so well you think you would go to, again in the future and how robust the market is there for that kind of financial arrangement right now.

I think it was, while that was done on fairly short notice with a long standing relationship and the numbers worked for both sides. I think they are obviously looking at the corporate guarantee and the balance sheet. Much more so than at the ship itself, which is actually the oldest ship in our fleet. So how deep is the bid, I think it's -- you know I would characterize it as fairly thin. I think the challenge is that you could -- I think there are a number of entities or firms that would do that kind of business but the question is the cost. And we are pretty choosy in that regard.

The next question will come from Jon Chappell of Evercore ISI. Please go ahead.

Tony, I just want to follow up on Mike's last question there. To the extent that it's possible, could you provide the terms that you have for this sale and leaseback, just so for modeling purposes. The duration, the rate you are paying, is it a time charter rate, is it a bare boat rate? And then also, probably unlikely given it's a 15 year old vessel, but is there a purchase option associated with it?

Yes. I think we would rather not disclose it for reasons of confidentiality but the terms are comparable to the rest of our senior debt. Admittedly a little more expensive but it is a five-year lease, I think we can say that. And you know it actually results in a lower financial breakeven than our senior debt would be.

Exactly.

And is it a bare boat structure?

It's a bareboat, yes. It's a capital lease bare boat structure.

And then maybe we can just look at the market, kind of back into when we might think a five-year bare boat right, maybe. I mean is it substantially out of the market, it's just kind of difficult to model that vessel going forward without any guidance on where that number might be.

Paul, do you want to comment?

Let me just say, it's a standard finance lease. The actual repayment amount is slightly under what you would expect to pay on the senior debt. So the repayment is a little bit under but otherwise it's for all intents and purposes it's comparable what we are paying, albeit a couple of hundred dollars a day that’s in your breakeven.

Okay. And then just the reason behind it. I mean, Tony you mentioned it's a long standing relationship and a pretty illiquid market and obviously 2002 built ship has a usage life issue coming forward. But your balance sheet is in pretty good shape right now. You have quite low debt amortization, no capital commitments. Certainly not at a position of weakness that you had to do this. Is it just kind of priming the pump for opportunities or is it complete kind of one off.

No, I think it's part of an interest to continue to maintain good cash balances either for defensive purposes for opportunities as they arise. So we believe we are in a market where cash is king.

And just one other thing to mention, Jon, that ship was almost fully repaid in terms of debt. So it had very little finance attached to it. So it may bent for a variety of reasons.

Okay. That makes sense. One last one. Just industry wide, this is obviously a billion dollar question, but I thought your comment on the product tanker market regarding OECD inventories versus the global CPP inventories is pretty interesting. Probably very difficult to quantify or put numbers around but I think there is probably an unhealthy focus on the OECD side of it. Maybe just because that’s the most transparent markets out there. But what's the importance of kind of traditional OECD markets as it relates to the bloated inventories there, as opposed to the global flexibility of your fleet. If the global CPP inventories are indeed down 50%, probably starts to move in other regions a lot quicker than maybe the traditional benchmarks for MRs.

Yes. I think the reason why we have made the point was that we kind of sat up and took notice when we saw that. It's in the oil market report on page 46 from January and I thought it was very interesting. You know I think we tend to, analytically we tend to go to the data that we have and the harder part is to try to fill in the gaps in terms of data that we don’t have and I think it was an interesting analysis that they did with some conclusions which feel, intuitively they feel like there is something to it because it's been pretty bad in the MR -- in terms of MR demand from the past six months. And during that period there are now, this would indicate that there has been a very substantial run down in non-OECD stocks and maybe that also ties in with a little more financial market turmoil and inability of those kind of buyers and regions to actually hold stocks. So you can almost see why it would be happening. So I think it's just lesson that it's important to kind of look at the total picture. The other thing to point out is that OECD is obviously really important but that represents about half of the oil market today. The other half is non-OECD and in our business the non-OECD destinations tend to be further away from refinery sources. You know South America, Africa, etcetera, so it could mean that we are closer to a turn than conventional wisdom might suggest.

So would that mean that then even more so than usual because it's always the case, just focusing on the TC2, TC14 may be misleading to the actual health of the underlying market.

Those are -- I don’t think you are going to just, as we have talked before, I mean you need to look at a global basket of rates and right now the market is probably at about 12,000, 12,500 a day on the global basis. And that includes TC2-14 combo but the east is definitely stronger than the west at the moment. But I think that the market, the ships are completely fungible on a global basis given the amount of time to reposition etcetera and it's a global market. And so if you get to a point where stocks get down to -- one of the things that really we understand is one of the real drivers of oil trading activity are regional physical end balances and price disparities. That drives -- that opens up orbs and drives cargo flow. And that’s been pretty weak in the last six months and the profitability in oil trading has been fairly compressed. So they have not wanted to take lot of risk. Now if you get down to more normal levels, that volatility comes back, the profitability comes back and you could see a significant jump, more or less a onetime jump in MR demand back up to more normal levels.

Our next question is from Noah Parquette with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Just wanted to touch on the back of the inventories questions. How do you think that OPEC production cut affects this, if at all? I know obviously it's clear cut where those are just crude tankers but how does that affect your business.

Well, that’s the feedstock for refineries, right. But there is plenty of it around. So the impact on product tankers is less than [indiscernible]. I think our focus and I think the focus ought to be on refined product stocks because as they get thrown down and if you are dealing with ready access and lots of inventory and stock piles of crude to refinery runs, you could a resurgence in refinery activity. So short answer is, it feeds into but I don’t think it really has a direct impact on the MR market.

Okay. And then it's been a little over a year now, you know China has emerged as kind of a pretty big exporter, going forward it's going to be probably a trend that we have to get used to. Is that thing good or bad for product tankers right now in terms of voyage accretion and dilution?

It's really been neither. You know in reality they are exporting a lot of diesel and now gasoline as well but for the most part it's effectively a backhaul run down to south Asia and there are plenty of ships to come and do that. So it hasn’t really had a big impact on boosting ton mile demand. That, for example, going down to Chile or Brazil or Argentina would. It's definitely head haul and probably not with any backhaul business we are limited. So the answer is, at this stage it's an interesting trend. It's something worth noting and talking about but it hasn’t had a big impact. But I think we need to watch it carefully to see overtime if the trading patterns over the destinations for Chinese exports changes and results in real demand growth.

It's interesting. So to clarify, you are saying that the ton mile demand hasn’t really been huge but what it's doing is allowing the existing fleet to be used more efficiently.

Yes. I mean basically instead of balance being all the way back down from Korea, Japan, you kind of pull in, take some Chinese stuff, bring it down to Singapore, that region. So it's price is backhaul, that means that it doesn’t have a big impact on ton mile demand the way it increases the front haul with. Now as the flows increase or change, you might see some of that going to destinations that would represent a real front haul and therefore a big boost to tone mile demand.

The next question will come from Ben Nolan with Stifel. Please go ahead.

This is [ Steven] [ph] Ben. Just had a couple of questions. The first one really deals with the new administration at Washington potentially talking about imposing new U.S. import taxes. And I was wondering what color you could provide in terms of what impact that would have on the refined product market potentially.

Don’t really have a view other than the obvious that anything that’s going to facilitate the competitiveness of U.S. refineries would help boost exports and that tends to be really good for MRs. And anything that would do the opposite wouldn’t be good. So based on our understanding, it should be positive but obviously we have a long way to do.

Okay. And then my next question deals with the MR order book you are talking about. Just wanted to piggyback on that a little bit. Is that any portion of the order book you believe isn't likely to get delivered or isn't really real in your opinion.

Yes. When you look at the list, there are some orders that are very very old and in strange places so you can delete those. In addition, there is a change in regulations that took place at the end of last year in terms of the engine type in the ship. And so a number of yards, mostly Japanese, took the opportunity to lay their [indiscernible] with the old engine type and they are listed in the order book as unknown buyers. And those are effectively just placeholders for the old type of engine, so those are not real orders.

Okay. And then just my last question deals with, with saw this earlier last year that the newbuilds for Suezmax and Aframaxes, they are actually doing a little bit the product trade before they transition back to crude. Are you still seeing that occurring or is that pretty much been removed from the market right now.

Our understanding is there is still some of that happening but it's a relatively small component of the overall market.

So not really having a big impact on refined product trade?

Not a big one.

[Operator Instructions] The next question will come from Magnus Fyhr of Seaport Global. Please go ahead.

Just a question on the market outlook. I know inventory levels are coming down. Do you see any leading indicators from the traders, the [indiscernible] and the [Veedols] [ph] of the world positioning for a recovery or are they still short freight.

Well, they are always going to be short freight but our understanding is that their PC books are pretty low right now.

Okay. But you haven't seen anything...

Yes. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. That means there is more upside and more volatility on the upside in spot rates.

Okay. I mean the charter in books have come done quite a bit like from the levels that we saw a few years ago. I mean did you see that changing going forward?

Well, yes. I think typically it moves with the market so I think when they feel that the market is on a tear, on run, they will probably build up again. The interesting thing is for them, it makes more sense to charter in at higher rates if there is more upside at that point because the numbers are just bigger. So charter in the 12000 a day, thinking it might make 13 is not that exciting for an oil trader compared to chartering in at '16, thinking it might make 22.

Interesting point. Just then on the, I mean the LR market has been very weak. Do you see a lot of encroachment there on the MR markets or do we need to see the LR market improve before the MR markets start to move.

We were quite concerned about that at the beginning of this dip back in August September and watched it carefully and it seems that it definitely, there is an overlap, relatively small where LR1s and LR2s can move in. But it's all about relative pricing. It's clear that it is having a dampening effect on MRs. It's also -- it's hard for us to envision a full blown cyclical upturn in MRs without the largest ships also doing quite well. So I don’t think we are going to see 25,000 a day in MRs until the LRs are doing quite well also.

So what do you think needs to happen on the LR market for that to happen?

Well, I think we think going to have choose, the great thing about the LR2 market is that when Afromaxes do well, LR2s tend to get sucked into dirty trading and it's very hard to get back. So we saw a lot of that in the second half of 2016. That took out as many as 30 ships. They attempted trade back into clean is quite is quite extensive and time consuming. So I think that’s always a positive factor. So I think if we go through a period where Afromax rates are at a sustained higher level than LR2s, the temptation is just too great. The reality though is that the order book as a percentage of the existing fleet for LR1 and LR2s is not huge. I think in both cases you have to look across the dirty and clean spectrum to understand the total order book and delivery schedule. And it's not lined up against the demand growth outlook, it's not unreasonable. So we think that it's just a matter of time and obviously the same factors in terms of the oil market inventory levels draw down, that’s obviously having an impact on LRs as well as MRs. So when that’s over and when that’s changes they can take advantage from that significantly as well.

Okay. And just one last question on the dry docking. You mentioned 45 days, maybe for Paul. Is that the Seatrader going in for the 15 year survey or does it look like they have a pretty light schedule for 2017.

That’s actually a mixture of ships. There is some in water surveys on a few of the ships and there is those two drydockings. So it's actually a combination of both of our ships and theirs as well. So in aggregate it's not one big ship.

So do you have a budget and schedule for 2017?

In terms of overall CapEx, I think we are looking to about $4.5 million on dry dockings this year towards the middle. It's spread all over the course of the year. I think we have got one proper special survey in the first quarter and then I think we have got two in the second half of the year. So overall it's about $4.5 million spread over the course of the year.

Right. And how do you think -- I mean the Seatrader is 15 years of age. How do you see trading that vessel and what with new regulations coming into place, are you going to address the water [ballast] [ph] treatment there or has that been postponed?

Well, she doesn’t go to dock until later in the year. We are not expecting a very, I mean she is in great shape, we have put her through docking twice ourselves so we are not -- that’s not a concern. The ballast water treatment installation on her will not happen this year. That would happen later if she is still in our flat at that point. And it's a good ship. I mean it's got an excellent record, customers like it. We think if we are in a continued weak market, after she hits 15 years of age then maybe that’s going to diminish her earnings prospects a little bit but at the same time she is still running very well and the invested capital is going down and down. So the returns on those kinds of ships if they are well maintained and efficient and if they have got a good reputation, probably pretty damn good.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our question-and-answer session and thus concludes today's call. We thank you very much for attending today's presentation. The call has ended. You may now disconnect your lines. Take care.