Greetings and welcome to the Diana Shipping Second Quarter 2015 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host Ed Nebb, Investor Relations Advisor. Thank you sir, you may begin.

Thank you, Christine and thanks to all of you for joining us today for the Diana Shipping second quarter 2015 conference call. Members of the management team who are with us today are Mr. Simeon Palios, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Anastasios Margaronis, President; Mr. Andreas Michalopoulos, Chief Financial Officer; Mr. Ioannis Zafirakis, Chief Operating Officer and Secretary; and Ms. Maria Dede, Chief Accounting Officer. Before management begins their remarks, let me briefly summarize the Safe Harbor. Certain statements made during this conference call, which are not statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements under the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions, expectations, intentions and beliefs as to future events that may or may not prove to be accurate. For a description of the risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause future results to differ from what is expressed in the forward-looking statements, please refer to the Company’s filings with the SEC. And with that, I will now turn the call over to Mr. Simeon Palios, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

Thank you Ed. Good morning and thank you for joining us today to discuss the results of Diana Shipping, Inc. for the second quarter of 2015. Through the first half of the year, we have continued to maintain a solid balance sheet, further strengthened by the proceeds of our senior and secure notes offering and have invested in the ongoing expansion of our fleet. To review our financial results, the company recorded the net loss of $14.1 million and a net loss attributed to common stockholders of $15.5 million for the second quarter of 2015. This compared with a net loss of $5.7 million and net loss attributed to common stockholders of $7.2 million for the second quarter of 2014. Our time charter revenues were $38.6 million for the 2015 second quarter compared to $43.2 million a year-ago. The decrease over the year ago period was mainly due to the prevailing lower time charter rate partially offset by an increase in the size of the fleet. Diana Shipping continued to maintain fortress [ph] balance sheet, reflecting cash and equivalents of nearly $275 million. Long-term debt including the current portion was $613.5 million compared to stockholders equity of approximately $1.26 billion. During the past quarter we further enhanced our financial capacity by raising $63.25 million in a public offering of senior and secure notes due 2020. The net proceeds can be used for the acquisition of additional vessels as well as general corporate purpose and working capital. Reflecting our confidence in the company certain executive officers, myself included purchased $12.75 million aggregate principal amount of the notes in this offering. Also earlier this week, we announced the signing and drawdown of $165 million term loan facility with BNP Paribas secured by 18 vessels and the voluntarily prepayment of the balance of…

Thank you Simeon and a very good morning to all. Bulk carrier industry has provided us with plenty [ph] as we talk about over the second quarter and more so during June and July this year. We will start as we usually do by looking at Baltic dry indices to put things in perspective. On April 1, 2015 the Baltic Dry Index was at 596 and closed yesterday at a much better level of 1,100. The Baltic Cape Index started the quarter at a miserable 463 and closed yesterday at 2,116, the Baltic Panamax Index was at 596 on April 1st and closed 1,044. The drop in dry bulk trade growth during the first five months of this year is largely due, according to Clarkson, to the climbing Chinese imports for all major commodities. Indeed things started happening on the upside in June and July. According to banchero costa, the Capesize market began to pick up in the past couple of months on the back of relatively strong demand and a significant pick up in demolition. However, we also point out the significant overcapacity remains which will eventually put pressure on rates. Limited contracting of new buildings and strong seaborne iron ore trades going forward could shed some light at the end of this long time. [Ph] Let’s turn to macroeconomic development. According to the OECD, global growth this year should reach 3.1% and growth could be as high as 3.8% in 2016. These figures are downward revisions through from 3.6% for this year and 3.9% for next. The Euro area is expected to grow by 0.7% this year and by 2.1% in 2016. In Europe, in May, a BMI data outlined according to Maersk Broker, the Euro area recovery that is experiencing some weakness. It felt to 53.6 in…

Thank you Stacy and good morning. I’m pleased to be discussing today with you Diana’s operational results for the second quarter and six months ended June 30, 2015. For the second quarter of 2015, our net loss amounted to $14.1 million, net loss attributed to common stockholders amounted to $15.5 million and loss per common share of $0.19 . Time charter revenue decreased to $38.6 million compared to $43.2 million in the second quarter of 2014. The decrease was due to the decreased average time charter rate that we achieved for our vessels during the quarter and increase of higher days compared to the same quarter of 2014 and was partially offset by revenues derived from the addition to our fleet of the vessels Atalandi delivered in May 2014, G. P. Zafirakis delivered in August 2014, Santa Barbara delivered in January 2015, and Medusa delivered in June 2015. Ownership days with 3,670 for the second 2015 compared to 3,417 in the same quarter of 2014. Fleet utilization was 98.2% compared to 99.8% in the same quarter of 2014. And the daily time charter equivalent rate was $9,613 compared to $12,107 in the same quarter of 2014. Voyage expenses were $4.1 million for the quarter compared to $2.2 million in the same quarter of 2014. The increase in voyage expenses was due to a $2.2 million loss from bunkers resulting from the redelivery of vessels in the quarter. Vessel operating expenses amounted to $21.2 million compared to $21.9 million in the second quarter of 2014 and decreased by 3%. The decrease was due to decreased crude costs, insurances, stores, sales and taxes. This decrease was partially offset by a 7% increase in ownership days resulting from the enlargement of the fleet and also increased repairs and maintenance costs and environmental plan…

[Operator Instructions] Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Michael Webber with Wells Fargo. Please proceed with your questions.

Good morning, guys. This is Donald McLee on for Michael. So, during the quarter you announced the charter extension on one of your post-Panamax vessels for I think is up to 25 months which is somewhat outside the range of your historically short-term chartering approach. Is that indicative of gradual improving outlook for the dry bulk market or how should we interpret that charter?

No, we don’t have a short-term approach. What we do is as we have always explained, try to position our vessels to open at different times in the cycle. We found that charter and it was well positioned for the vessel to open after 24 months at a point where we don’t have a lot of vessels opening, as simple as that. We don’t take a position as regards to where market we think is going to go in our chartering strategy. If you start taking positions on chartering as well that the market is going be pick up or say lower or become lower or stay where it is, then you are adding to your risk, involve and you’re already taking a risk by having pressured vessels at the low vessel cycle. We don’t need to do that.

That makes sense. And I guess in regard to purchases, given your solid cash position, does fleet growth remain a priority or could we see may be share buybacks or some other capital alternatives?

It is not on our immediate plans to do something like this. We stick to the vessel practices and we’re constantly looking to invest on another $20 million to $15 million soon by buying one or two vessels.

And within that purchasing strategy, do you have a preference for second hand or new-build tonnage?

We think that the market today is that the resale are an attraction to us.

Our next question comes from the line of Amit Mehrotra with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed with your question.

My first question is with respect to the re-chartering activities that have been done so far. It looks like you re-chartered about half of the fleets year-to-date. And by our calculations, it looks like I guess in terms of the new rates that those are being booked at -- it will result in about $20 million say cash flow headwind on an annualized basis. So my first question is, is that in the ballpark of accuracy? Number one. And then second, Ioannis, you’ve talked in the past about stress testing the company and the stress test that companies have done, has done and how even under the most conservative rate assumptions will allow the company to continue in investing. So, can you just give us a little bit more color on that stress test and what that stress tests have told about the headwinds that company may have to endure in the current downturn? Thank you.

We have been very conservative with our model and we are well aware of how money we can burn even in really bad situation. At the same time we know very well with the cash position that we have we can afford to invest for another year and a half around $20 million every two months or so. And therefore we strongly feel that we’re in a very good position. Don’t forget also that the market is going to have some up and down where we’ll have the benefit of taking some charters there. You see we have always a vessel opening. And if the market improves a bit, we’ll take the advantage. But nevertheless, as we said earlier, we don’t want to take any kinds of position with our chartering strategy. We have ensured the survival of the company even in a prolonged downside with our balance sheet.

Right. But can you just offer a little bit more detail though in terms of charterings that you’ve done year-to-date, and what has been the weakest market, what you think the prospective cash burn associated with those re-charterings would be relative to where you had them contracted before?

You see the model of our is it works both ways. When you have a hedging strategy, when the market is picking up, it looks like you are losing money and when the market is going down, it looks like you are making money. We strongly think that we’re in a position to burn around $40 million per year, if necessary.

Can I ask just one more, maybe two more questions? The first one is a quick one. Andreas, last quarter you said that the company has the capacity to deploy $300 million in new purchases and that’s obviously the equity as well as the debt component of the financing. I just wanted to confirm that that’s still the number and you guys confirmed earlier that I guess it’s still $15 million to $20 million of equity every two months, and I guess that still stands?

Yes, that still stands, that stands even more, now that we have extended basically the loan that we had with obviously changing to BNP Paribas for five years. So yes, those numbers are still valid.

Last one for me, just quick question on what you’ve seen in the purchase and sale market, because you guys are obviously now little more active in it. I’ve heard that owners have basically in some cases taken their vessels to market in response to the improved rates over the last couple of months. So, can you just sort of confirm or maybe deny that or offer some color in terms of what you are seeing in terms of changes in the purchasing opportunities that you are seeing out there?

As regards to whether there are potential sellers in the market, I can tell you that they are. And especially the ones which we are particularly interested which are the resale. So there are ships around, even today.

Our next question comes from the line of Gregory Lewis with Credit Suisse. Please proceed with your question.

I know it’s been challenging market on the ship finance side, but it looks like and I know this has been out there for a while that RBS is looking to sell its shipping portfolio. I guess two thoughts around that, one is, does that provide any opportunity for ship owners to potentially get involved in that process? And then secondly given the fact that RBS is pretty -- has been historically pretty big in ship finance, is it possible that these sales create further downward pressure on asset prices?

I think RBS is very old established bank that know shipping very well. And I don’t think that whatever they do, they will do it in a disorder manner. I think anything they’ll do is going to be orderly and very professionally. Don’t forget that they have been perhaps one of the two banks, only two banks which have been the oldest established banks, going back to Williams Deacon’s, Williams Inc. [Ph] and now Royal Bank of Scotland. So whatever they are going to do, it’s going to be order and professional.

And Greg, they are talking about their selling their portfolio, not rest.

I understand that. And then just one other for me. It seems like over the last couple of years people were thinking that there was the depth of the Valemax to 400,000 deadweight ton vessels now China has started to take the vessels; they’re potentially going to go out and build more of these vessels for their capital fleet if we want to think that that the larger Chinese shipping companies are national. And then as we think about that where does Diana sort of view that market and is that something where we could see Diana Shipping getting involved in that vessel size or is that something at this point that really the average ship owner just has no interest in?

As regards to Diana, I think we’re a little bit skeptical regarding the 400,000 ton deadweight ships. And I would like to see the first vessel passing has sales for year special survey to see the way they be getting. Quite honestly I think that the Newcastlemax is a good animal to have as opposed to the poor carrier. It’s not a bulk carrier, it’s more [ph] carrier. So the 400,000 vessel is at the mercy of iron ore, it doesn’t have the flexibility of being able to load coal for example because of the cubic capacity. So, we do prefer Newcastlemax is on the 400,000 iron ore carrier.

Greg, also don’t forget that these very big vessels, they demand long-term contract which they become banking with some shipping deals. So we want to be a in position to take advantage of the market picking up and not having locked that is for long period with long time charters.

Our next question comes from the line of Fotis Giannakoulis with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your question.

I would like to ask about how do you view the current uptick in the charter rates and whether this is just part of the volatility as we mentioned, is it part of restocking or is it part of gradual recovery of dry bulk market? And also, if you can comment on the vessel supply, I heard the number of 5% fleet growth in one of the projections of one of the brokers. I see that the fleet growth is much less so far part, is there a front [ph] order book that can keep the order book much lower than what it looks like?

I mean for Fotis, what we’re seeing here in way of supply of ship is the uncertainty of some ships not being delivered or not being delivered, that who they’re going to be delivered to. So we don’t see a huge slippage in excess of 15%, maximum 20%. So it is fairly safe to use the new-building statistics that we have now and apply to see the 20% slippage and derive from there with some reasonable assumptions on scraping, which we have to trim now in view of the strength of the market to see where the tonnage is going to be at the end of this year and next. It’s still that is encouraging that we’re going to have fewer gates [ph] have been delivered possibly this year but there more coming next year unfortunately and then again the numbers drop. On Panamax, we have a steady flow of ships coming in. So, how can we interpret the strength in the market that we’re seeing now? That we will answer after the event as usual. But for now, we can only speculate and say that this to restocking iron ore mainly by China, they’re taking advantage of the low price by other possibly clients of the mining companies. And at the end of the day we’re going to sit back in October or November and reflect as to what has been happening. And we’re just little bit skeptical as to whether this is an orderly increase in the market because it has been very orderly to begin with, it’s been jumping, and on some days up to 10% a day. So there is nothing orderly about that. There is obviously an acute shortage in some sense or panic in some quarters. And we have to wait and see how this thing is going to develop once the first cargo which were picked in July and July have been delivered and the ship comes open for their next employment and their loading board.

One last question, if you can comment about Noble Energy and how much it can impact the market if there is downgrade or a default, is this a big news for the dry bulk market. I know that they’re chartering quite a few dry bulk vessels, that’s I am asking?

The market you know very well is very fragmented. However the psychology is very important and if the psychology goes to the pessimistic side of the story, may lead to various events that they lead the rates to go further down. We are not in a position to really comment on what the effects are going to be if something happens.

Let me add quickly. If all these catalysts at the end implied in environment of optimism, the effects are going to be minimum; if the catalysts in environment of pessimism, they’re going to be more pronounced.

Do you have an idea of how many vessels they might have chartered or how many ship on they might be affected or it’s going to be more the repel effect that you might have in mind?

We are not in a position to respond to that question. We don’t know.

Okay. Thank you gentlemen. And hopefully next quarter we will have a positive signal about the turning of the market. Thanks again.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the floor back over to management for closing comments.

Excuse me, operator, I think there is another question.

We did get another question from Amit Mehrotra with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed with your question.

Hey, thank you for adding me in at the last minute. One follow-up on just on the question on the age of fleet. Stacy spoke about this in his prepared remarks but I’m wondering Stacy if you looked at those vessels which are not exactly 20 years old but maybe 18 to 19 years old. And based on our numbers, it looks like maybe about 5% of the Capesize fleet can be reaching that 20-year milestone over the next 12 to 18 months. So, wondering if you’ve looked at that and what that impacts your on prospective supply or potential scrappage?

The answer is we have not analyzed that particular sector because it all depends on the condition of the ship. So each ship will effectively put its destiny depending on its condition whether it’s going to go to the scrap yard or it’s going to continue trading. The fact remains that the age of the ships, they were built at specifications which are not necessarily against the longevity of the particular vessel, provided they were maintained properly as opposed to some ships that are being built recently which have a life which is more or less predetermined and will not go beyond the 20 years. I’m talking about the Capes now. So we haven’t unfortunately analyzed on a ship by ship basis; it’s 5% factor of the Capesize fleet and we can’t answer to your question.

And then we’ve seen a couple of companies now do advanced dry dockings ahead of potential regulatory requirements next year. Do you guys have any plans on sort of doing such things in order to differ may be additional CapEx next year that May sort of result in some increased maintenance CapEx this year?

Yes. We are considering doing something similar.

Okay. Any idea in terms of how much that may cost in the back of the year?

Well, for the third quarter we have one, two, three, four, five vessels that are approaching to go on the dry dock. I can name them for you, ALCMENE, ALCYON, DANAE, DIONE, NIREFS and the cost of those is on average $600,000 for each. And on the fourth quarter, we have the plan to proceed with NAIAS, OCEANIS, SIDERIS GS and TRITON and again, the average cost is the same per vessel $600,000 [ph] more or less.

We have no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call back over to management for closing comments.

Thank you again for your interest in and support of Diana Shipping. We look forward to speaking with you in the months ahead. Thank you.