Danaos Corporation (DAC) Q2 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Good day, and welcome to the Danaos Corporation conference call to discuss the financial results for the 3 months ended June 30, 2026. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. Hosting the call today is Dr. John Coustas, Chief Executive Officer of Danaos Corporation; and Mr. Evangelos Chatzis, Chief Financial Officer of Danaos Corporation. Dr. Coustas and Mr. Chatzis will be making some introductory comments, and then we will open the call to a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Evangelos Chatzis, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Before we begin, I quickly want to remind everyone that management's remarks this morning may contain certain forward-looking statements and that actual results could differ materially from those projected today. These forward-looking statements are made as of today, and we undertake no obligation to update them. Factors that might affect future results are discussed in our filings with the SEC, and we encourage you to review these detailed safe harbor and risk factor disclosures. Please also note that where we feel appropriate, we will continue to refer to non-GAAP financial measures such as EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income, time charter equivalent revenues and time charter equivalent dollars per day to evaluate our business. Reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release and accompanying materials. With that, let me now turn the call over to Dr. John Coustas, who will provide the broad overview of the quarter. John?

Thank you, Evangelos. Good morning, and thank you all for joining today's call to discuss our results for the second quarter of 2026. The conflicts in Ukraine and Iran continue with no clear resolution in sight, although a brief ceasefire allowed us to move our 2 vessels out of the Gulf and both our crews and vessels safe and fully operational. Uncertainty in global supply chains, the disruption in the Gulf, the restrictions in Bab el-Mandeb and the tariff measures in the United States have combined to create exceptionally tight conditions with rates across most shipping sectors at multiyear highs. Shipping remains the only industry capable of absorbing disruption on this scale and keeping the world supplied with goods, energy and raw materials. Against this backdrop, Danaos continued to execute its long-term strategy of securing extended charter employment at attractive rates and arranging competitive long-term financing for our Newbuilding program. This quarter, we saw significant contribution from our Dry Bulk investment as Capesize rates reached multiyear highs and the segment contributed $18.8 million of adjusted EBITDA against $5.9 million a year ago. As charterers continue to compete for quality tonnage, we took the opportunity to extend charters across a broad part of the fleet, adding approximately $683 million to our contracted revenue backlog. Backlog now stands at a record $4.6 billion with 100% of our container operating days contracted for 2026, 93% for 2027, and 79% for 2028, while even for 2029 contract coverage is already above 60%. We also continue to term out our financing, refinancing 2 further vessels through Japanese operating leases. We also added a further $236 million in JOLCO financing commitments for 3 vessels delivering in 2027 and enter into $132 million credit facility to finance our 6, 1,800 TEU Newbuildings. With 78 of our 87 operating vessels debt free, Net Leverage Ratio of 0.3x and total liquidity of approximately $1.5 billion we remain well positioned to pursue accretive opportunities, including the development of our investment in the Alaska LNG project. Together with a disciplined approach to expansion, we believe these dynamics will continue to drive improving profitability and create lasting value for our shareholders. With that, I'll hand the call over back to Evangelos, who will take you through the financials for the quarter. Evangelos?

Thank you, John, and good morning again to everyone, and thank you for joining us. I will review the results for the quarter, and we will then open the call to Q&A. Adjusted net income for the second quarter was $133.1 million or $7.29 per share compared to $117 million or $6.36 per share in the second quarter of 2025. That is an increase of $16.1 million or approximately 15% on a per share basis. The improvement was driven principally by our Dry Bulk segment. Container vessel revenue was broadly unchanged, down $0.8 million on a base of $238.7 million. Newbuilding deliveries of containerships contributed $3.2 million of incremental revenues and higher charter rates a further $0.6 million. Offsetting this were a $3.4 million reduction in noncash revenue recognition under U.S. GAAP and the $1.2 million effect from higher off-hire charges during this period. Dry bulk revenue, on the other hand, increased by $13 million or 57% from $22.7 million to $35.7 million, and the principal driver was the improved dry bulk market. Our Capesize time charter equivalent rate rose to $30,400 per day from approximately $18,000 per day in the comparable prior quarter, which reflects improved market conditions. During this quarter, we also operated one additional vessel that we acquired a few months ago. Segment adjusted EBITDA for the Dry Bulk segment increased to $18.8 million from $5.9 million a year ago. Turning now to operating costs. Vessel operating expenses were stable and came in at $56.7 million in the current quarter against $56.4 million in the second quarter of 2025, notwithstanding an increase in the average number of vessels in the fleet between the 2 periods. Daily operating costs declined to $7,416 per vessel per day in the current quarter from $7,556 per vessel per day in the second quarter of 2025. Our operating costs remain among the most competitive in the industry. G&A expenses increased by $3.7 million to $14.9 million in the current quarter compared to $11.2 million in the second quarter of 2025. This increase mainly relates to $1.5 million in higher management fees, partially driven by the increase in the average number of vessels in our fleet and a $2.2 million increase in corporate G&A. On the finance cost side, interest expense, excluding amortization of finance fees and debt discount, decreased by $1.6 million to $7.3 million in the current quarter from $8.9 million in the second quarter of 2025. Now there are 2 components to this improvement. Capitalized interest on vessels under construction rose to $9 million from $4.8 million previously as our Newbuilding program advanced thus reducing interest expense by $4.2 million. And working in the opposite direction, average indebtedness increased by $326 million to $1.1 billion, and that added $2.6 million in interest expense. The effect of the increase in average indebtedness was partially mitigated by a reduction in our average cost of debt service of approximately 1.1%, reflecting lower SOFR rates and a lower bond coupon following the refinancing of our bond in Q4 of last year. Interest income doubled to $7.4 million compared to $3.7 million a year ago on the back of higher cash balances. Therefore, net interest expense decreased by $5.3 million between the 2 periods. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 6.1% or $10.8 million to $186.8 million this quarter compared to $176 million in the second quarter of 2025 for reasons that have already been outlined earlier on this call. We would also encourage you to review our updated investor presentation and the subsequent event disclosures, both of which are available on our website. We would like to turn to some of the highlights. Since the date of our last earnings release, we have added $683 million to our contracted revenue backlog. As a result, our backlog stands at $4.6 billion, with a 4.7 average charter duration, while contract coverage is already at 100% for this year, 93% for 2027, 79% for 2028 and 61% for 2029. Our investor presentation has analytical disclosure on our contracted charter book. As of June 30, net debt stood at $224.5 million, equivalent to 0.3x last 12 months EBITDA. And out of our 87 vessels, 78 carried no debt. That is 66 are unencumbered and a further 12 secure our revolving credit facility, which remains undrawn. Finally, as of the end of the second quarter of 2026, cash stood at $1 billion. Total liquidity that includes cash availability under our RCF and value of marketable securities stood at approximately $1.5 billion, while in addition to that, we also hold committed undrawn facilities in support of our Newbuilding program. This gives us ample flexibility to pursue accretive capital deployment opportunities. In summary, strong contract coverage for the next 4 years, a record contracted revenue backlog, net leverage of 3/10 of a turn and the fully financed construction program. With that, I would like to thank you all for listening to this first part of our call. Operator, we are now ready to open the call to Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Omar Nokta of Clarksons Securities.

I just wanted to ask a bit about the business obviously is thriving as we see it. You've added a good amount of backlog here these past few months as you were highlighting, and that's going to give you a nice continued stream of revenue visibility and obviously, a really good amount of free cash flow. My question is, how do you envision using this free cash flow in the coming quarters? Do you look to pay down some of the debt you've taken on here recently? Do you look for more investment opportunities? And I guess, with regards to, say, those investments, how would you rank looking at container ships, looking at Dry Bulk or maybe looking outside of those 2 segments?

Well, the actual, let's say, risk of new investments at elevated prices is becoming higher. And of course, growing is extremely easy. Growing accretively is much more difficult. So for the time being, we are, let's say, using these extraordinary times in order to make an even better balance -- fortress balance sheet to make our financing towards, let's say, longer duration with JOLCOs. And we will just try to be there when the opportunities arise. I mean the situation is extremely volatile. We see that new buildings overall are increasing by the day. And we are very clearly looking at all this. We have executed our growth at times where prices were more reasonable and availability of long-term charters was at much more accretive rates. I mean, nowadays, we are very careful. We have positioned ourselves where we wanted, and we'll take it as it goes.

Yes. No, makes sense. Definitely understood on that part. And I guess perhaps then given just how much cash you've been generating, you've been returning capital to shareholders, both via the dividends and the buyback, although you paused that recently. But I guess as we think about the dividend here moving ahead, last month, you declared the $0.90, which is the fourth one at that level since you raised it from, I think it was $0.85 the prior 4 quarters. As we think about what the next dividend looks like, should we anticipate it being another moderate rise as we've seen in the past? Or would it be something more sizable, you think?

Well, we have kind of a pattern until now. It's up to the Board to decide really, at what pace we're going to increase it. In general, we have not been there for spectacular dividend rises. However, this is something to discuss for the next quarter.

Yeah, got it. We look forward to that. Thank you John and thanks Evangelos, and congrats on the sizable backlog additions here.

The next question comes from Climent Molins of Value Investors Edge.

Omer has already covered a lot of ground, but I wanted to ask about the relative performance on the Capesize side, which improved nicely quarter-over-quarter. Are most vessels employed on spot? Or do you have any fixed time charter cover?

The vessels are in general spot. We have a couple of vessels on index, which practically is, let's say, spot again, and only one vessel on fixed rate until year-end or whatever. So more or less, yes, we are playing the market.

That's helpful. And my other question was on the Alaska LNG project. Could you talk a bit about how the project is progressing? And as you think about the LNG industry, is it fair to expect you to only place orders if they are backed by long-term contracts for the Alaska LNG project, I believe that's the case. But would you be willing to take speculative orders for other projects?

No. I think if we wanted to take speculative orders, we would have done it. We want to tie up the orders together with the LNG production out of Alaska. The project is progressing. There are some kind of legislative arrangements that need to be performed before FID is given and the project is running full steam, which we expect sometime in September.

It appears we have no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the call back over to Dr. Coustas for any further comments or closing remarks.

Thank you all for joining this conference call and your continued interest in our story. Look forward to hosting you on our next earnings call. Have a nice day.

Thank you. This concludes today's teleconference. We would like to thank everyone for their participation. Have a wonderful afternoon.