Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Star Bulk Conference Call on the First Quarter 2014 Financial Results. We have with us Mr. Spyros Capralos, President and Chief Executive Officer and Mr. Simos Spyrou, Chief Financial Officer of the Company. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) I must advise you this conference is being recorded today on Thursday, May 29, 2014. We now pass the floor to one of your speakers today, Mr. Spyros Capralos. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Operator. I’m Spyros Capralos, President and Chief Executive Officer of Star Bulk Carriers, and I would like to welcome you to the Star Bulk Carriers’ first quarter 2014 financial results conference call. Along with me today to discuss our financial results is our CFO, Mr. Simos Spyrou. Before we begin, I kindly ask you to take a moment to read the Safe Harbor statement on Slide Number 2 of our presentation. Since you are all quick readers now that we’re done with Slide Number 2, I would like to summarize our business strategy as presented on Slide Number 4. Star Bulk is executing an aggressive fleet expansion and renewal strategy with 11 fuel efficient newbuildings from top-class yards as well as opportunistic acquisitions of premium second-hand tonnage. Having invested at essentially the bottom of the cycle we secured compelling delivery slots in 2015 and early 2016 now worth $80 million above their contract costs. Our commercial strategy allows us to maintain spot market exposure taking advantage in the future of a market recovery and of the savings from our fuel efficient new buildings. We have diversified the composition of our fleet by weighing more on larger vessels that will benefit mostly from a broad market recovery due to the economies of scale they offer on a freight per tonne basis and the increasing long-haul shipments. On a fully deployed basis we will own 12 Capesizes and Newcastlemax vessels out of a fleet of 28 vessels in total. Furthermore, we have leveraged our sponsor’s vast experience in shipping, involving acquiring, operating and successfully disposing vessels along various stages of the shipping cycle. The benefits of the above spend across various areas from maxes to first year’s shipyards to long-term relationships with charters and brokers. Finally, despite being in a…

Thank you, Spyros. Let us now turn to Slide Number 7 of the presentation for a preview of our first quarter of 2014 financial highlights in comparison to last year’s respective quarter. In the three months ended March 31, 2014, net revenues amounted to 90.3 million, 11% increase versus respective figures during the first quarter of 2013. Net revenues represent our total revenues adjusted for non-cash items less voyage expenses. The reason we refer to our net revenues is because this figure nets out any difference in the number of voyage charters we performed in each period and therefore it’s directly comparable to other periods. The increase in our net revenues is attributed mainly to the addition of the Post-Panamax vessels in our fleet as well as the increase in the management fee income earned. Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter of 2014 was 7.8 million, decreased by 10.7% versus last year’s respective figure. The decrease is attributed to the higher drydocking expenses which amounted to $700,000 this quarter versus $200,000 during the first quarter of 2013 whereby no vessel was drydocked. Furthermore prior year’s quarterly figure also incorporated an amount of 700,000 of net operational gain which was related to claim settlement payments which is not recurring this quarter. Overall, during the first quarter of 2014, the Company had a net loss of $900,000 compared to a net profit of 1.2 million in the first quarter of 2013. Excluding non-cash items, our adjusted net income for the first quarter amounted to 1.7 million gain, compared to an adjusted net income of 2.8 million in the first quarter of 2013. Our time charter equivalent rate during this quarter was $14,343 per day per vessel essentially in line with the $14,316 per day per vessel related to the pre-delivery expenses for…

Thank you, Simos. Slide 10, gives you a brief review of our fleet profile. We currently own 17 drybulk vessels, five of them are Capesizes, two Post-Panamaxes, two Ultramaxes and eight Supramaxes with a total deadweight capacity of 1.6 million deadweight tonnes and an average age of about 9 years. We have in addition a newbuilding program consisting of 11 fuel-efficient eco-friendly vessels under order in first class shipyards consisting of five Newcastlemaxes, two Capesizes and four Ultramaxes, with delivery spanning between 2015 and early 2016. Upon full delivery of our newbuildings we will own a total of 28 vessels from 17 vessels a day. The fleet is managed internally, which provides full efficiency and transparency to our shareholders. Aside from the management of our own fleet we also provide ship management services today to 14 third-party vessels for a daily fee of $750 per day. On the bottom left graph you can see that upon completion of our newbuilding program we’ll have grown our total fleet under management to more than 8 million deadweight tonnes representing a 35% compounded annual rate of growth on deadweight basis from 2009. Please turn to Slide 11, to discuss commercial performance. Since 2009 both Capesize and Supramax vessels have outperformed the market. Specifically our Capesize fleet has outperformed the Baltic Capesize index by 61% on average during this period. During Q1 2014 our Capesize vessels earned an average daily TCE of $23,108, 41% higher than the $16,370 per day that the BCI had averaged over the same period. The performance was positively affected due to a decision we took at the beginning of the year to reposition, Star Polaris and Star Borealis to Brazil. For the latter I would like to note that we have arranged a voyage charter at gross rate, rate…

Thank you, Spyros. On Slide 16 we summarize the drybulk trade demand dynamics. First of all let’s talk about iron ore, perhaps the most important commodity in the drybulk shipping space. It is apparent that the international iron ore market will see substantial additional supply coming in from producers that have the ability of predatory pricing in order to capture more international market share. This is expected to drive the international iron ore price to remain at the current low levels, high at approximately $100 per tonne, a level at which the majority of small private Chinese producers are non-competitive. Therefore, we believe that the substitution of the expensive Chinese iron ore production with imported ore can provide a significant support to iron ore trade even with zero steel production growth. Regarding now coal trade, as you can see on the left bottom graph, Chinese coal trade has evolved tremendously for the last eight years. China’s increased energy needs have turned the country from a traditional coal exporter to the single biggest coal importer in the world in half a decade. From significant coal trade surpluses up until 2005, China had a coal trade deficit of around 314 million tonnes during the last 12 months. Similar to China Indian coal imports have increased with a compound annual growth rate of 25% during the period between 2006 and 2012, reaching 157 million tonnes per annum. Going forward, according to Clarksons, India is expected to reach the $191 million tonnes per annum of coal imports in 2014, an increase of 21% versus 2012 levels. Lastly, as the rain season kicks off in the second quarter of 2014, we expect this to provide an additional uplift in Panamax and Supramax freight rates. Grain is a commodity that is carried mostly by Panamaxes and…

Thank you, Simos. In conclusion, we believe that investing in Star Bulk as is depicted in Slide 19, offer certain distinct benefits. First of all, to our flexible charging strategy, our fleet is poised to benefit from the drybulk market recovery, while we do have the financial power to capitalize on any distressed opportunities that might arise. Secondly, our investors get exposure to superior assets with a diverse quality modern fleet, including 11 top-spec active newbuildings ordered at first three yards in Japan and China. Furthermore we focus on what we do best that is owning and operating drybulk vessels while we have diversified our asset base to higher margin vessels such as Newcastlemaxes. Being experienced fleet managers led by Chairman Mr. Pappas we have expanded our shareholder base to our creative institutions such as Oaktree and Monarch clearly a vote of confidence in our transparent and efficient operations. Lastly we posses strong transparent in-house commercial and technical management capabilities of which we take full advantage by managing third-party vessels as well. This activity generates riskless revenue, diversifying our consolidated cash flows. Furthermore, as the size of our operating fleet increases, we enjoy substantial economies of scale and cost synergies, benefiting both, the third-party vessels under management as well as our own vessels equitably. Overall, we believe Star Bulk will be able to favorably compete and ultimately shine and prosper in tomorrow’s drybulk markets. I would like to thank our shareholders for their ongoing support and loyalty and we assure them that we will continue our efforts to ensure the Company’s long-term viability and enhanced shareholder’s value. Without taking any more of your time, I will now pass the floor over to the operator. And in case you have any questions, both Simos and myself, will be very happy to answer them.

and:

Thank you very much sir. (Operator Instructions) And your first question today comes from the line of Ben Nolan from Stifel. Please go ahead. Ben Nolan your line is open, please go ahead.

Yes, thank you guys. My first question has to do with something Spyros that you mentioned you guys are calculating your NAV to be about $13 a share obviously the premium to where the shares are trading at the moment but by the same token you have about $80 million and above market newbuilding contracts. Have you given any thought to the idea of maybe selling more into those to monetize on the difference and both to reduce your CapEx commitments but then also to close the gap between where the share price is trading and net asset value? Stifel Financial: Yes, thank you guys. My first question has to do with something Spyros that you mentioned you guys are calculating your NAV to be about $13 a share obviously the premium to where the shares are trading at the moment but by the same token you have about $80 million and above market newbuilding contracts. Have you given any thought to the idea of maybe selling more into those to monetize on the difference and both to reduce your CapEx commitments but then also to close the gap between where the share price is trading and net asset value?

That’s the only question Ben I can’t replay to Nolan to Ben. Ben, right now we haven’t thought about selling of any of our vessels right now the market after the first quarter that there was a surge in prices right now prices of vessels are in the newbuildings are also in the second-hand vessels are quite softer. And therefore I don’t think that it’s the right time to sell any of the vessels that are under construction. We feel that with the upsurge in at a certain point and the recovery in the charter rates that prices of vessels will also get the benefit from that.

Okay, well that’s helpful. That leads to sort of the next question obviously you don’t many capital commitments on slotting capital commitments this year but they’re starting next year does move up to I think you said $77 million. How are you thinking about funding those commitments? Stifel Financial: Okay, well that’s helpful. That leads to sort of the next question obviously you don’t many capital commitments on slotting capital commitments this year but they’re starting next year does move up to I think you said $77 million. How are you thinking about funding those commitments?

Well, as you said correctly, for this year, there is no capital expenditure commitments now for next year starting in the middle of next year we expect and we have the possibility from now until that time at the certain point when the market is better I think that we’ll have the possibility either to find ways and finance our newbuilding program or raise equity at the certain point. But I think that the commitments that we have are not such huge that could create any difficulties in the Company in raising the money.

Okay. Well, that’s helpful. And then my last question has to do with the G&A, I know that you guys have hired a larger land based office while more employees on the land side to facilitate all of the newbuildings that are coming on and that’s completely understandable. Actually my question now is should we assume that the G&A rate you guys had in the first quarter here is a pretty good run rate for it should be in subsequent quarters? Stifel Financial: Okay. Well, that’s helpful. And then my last question has to do with the G&A, I know that you guys have hired a larger land based office while more employees on the land side to facilitate all of the newbuildings that are coming on and that’s completely understandable. Actually my question now is should we assume that the G&A rate you guys had in the first quarter here is a pretty good run rate for it should be in subsequent quarters?

Ben, I know that G&A is something important for us and we’ve shown commitment to reduce always G&A cost. With the assumption of additional vessels under management, you have to hire people in advance to make sure that those vessels will be properly managed and I think going forward I think the G&A and G&A per vessel will continue coming down, even though in this first quarter, it has come down but not as much as we would like them to come down. We have a goal to have G&A expenses at lower levels than what we currently have. On the previous question also about the raising how we’re going to finance the capital expansion program of course that depends also on the market developments and the charter rates that we’re going to achieve because the company is also generating a nice cash flow from the operation of the existing fleet that we have in the water. Therefore, the higher the charter rates especially because we are mostly spot the more cash we will be generating and then the lower the capital expenditure financing requirements will be.

Okay. Well, that makes sense. And that does it for my questions. I appreciate it guys. Stifel Financial: Okay. Well, that makes sense. And that does it for my questions. I appreciate it guys.

Then just to summarize on the G&A expenses what we do internally is actually in order to be comparable with previous quarters, we subtract from the G&A expenses the revenue that we have from management of third-party vessels because actually in order to manage third-party vessels the only additional cost that we have is wages so it’s G&A expenses basically. So to have a real comparison, we subtract from G&A expenses the management fee income. So if you apply this net G&A expenses to the owned vessels this year and last year, the year-over-year reduction is about 2% obviously it’s not too much but it’s to the right direction. And you have to keep in mind that when we’re preparing for further growth of managed vessels capabilities, we’re hiring people in advance of getting the vessels. So basically this is a cost that we have to-date now in order to be able to in next quarter or in two quarters from now to manage the additional vessels that will come to our fleet. And we still believe that the G&A expenses per vessels will go further down from the first quarter 2014 levels.

Okay. Well, that’s helpful. Thank you. Stifel Financial: Okay. Well, that’s helpful. Thank you.

Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Harsha Gowda from BlueShore. Please go ahead.

So I have three questions for you. Number one, let me just thank you for the great detail you went through in the presentation. It was very helpful and it really shows how much you’ve achieved in the past few years. So thanks for that. My first question is in regards to one of your competitors announced that they’re working on a settlement with STX Pan Ocean for a charter hire termination and they were going to receive cash and stock and roughly they could sell the stock and they’ll get about 20% minimum compensation on the entire claim, have you been proceeding with that also on the broken charter? I think it was on the Borealis from last year. BlueShore: So I have three questions for you. Number one, let me just thank you for the great detail you went through in the presentation. It was very helpful and it really shows how much you’ve achieved in the past few years. So thanks for that. My first question is in regards to one of your competitors announced that they’re working on a settlement with STX Pan Ocean for a charter hire termination and they were going to receive cash and stock and roughly they could sell the stock and they’ll get about 20% minimum compensation on the entire claim, have you been proceeding with that also on the broken charter? I think it was on the Borealis from last year.

Harsha yes. We have -- as you can understand, we have a quite substantial plane for STX Pan Ocean from Star Borealis. This has gone into court because we have not managed to find dynamic-able solution with STX Pan Ocean. The case was discussed actually yesterday in the court in Korea. There was no amount that has been adjudicated because the court has requested STX to provide more evidence on their numbers. I suspect that we’ll going to have a number adjudicated to us but I cannot say more about what this number is going to be.

Okay, another reason is I saw in Western Bulks recent presentation that they -- I guess they came to a settlement with a breakdown in shares and cash and -- there was a decent accounting effect and considering how much the claim is that could be a nice chunk of cash that will help with the capital raising for the next year. So I hope that goes well. BlueShore: Okay, another reason is I saw in Western Bulks recent presentation that they -- I guess they came to a settlement with a breakdown in shares and cash and -- there was a decent accounting effect and considering how much the claim is that could be a nice chunk of cash that will help with the capital raising for the next year. So I hope that goes well.

Harsha, they are not all the claims, they are not adjudicated by the court at the same time. And some of the owners have decided to settle with STX outside of the courts. In our case, it was supposed our claim to be discussed yesterday but there wasn’t not a decision, still you have to keep in mind that if and when this is going to be adjudicated it’s going to be a settlement over of not immediate, actually it’s going to be a settlement over the next 10 years. And it’s going to be 30 so percent in cost and the remaining in equity this is what we’ve been advised actually by the Korean lawyers. And most of the cost is going to be tail heavy. But still we are expecting from the court to get the final decision.

Okay. And just to be sure, the total claim is roughly about 70 million, correct? BlueShore: Okay. And just to be sure, the total claim is roughly about 70 million, correct?

Yes, this is what we are claiming but of course it’s not, we’re not talking about -- we cannot say more about and discuss more about this claim, while this whole claim is in court.

Okay, okay, great. That I just want to see if that was preceding it looks like it is. My next two questions are more industry focus, one of your competitors in the call they were talking today recently about, the slowdown in the Atlantic basin in the second quarter which was, just for the first time and I guess they said in 30 years, they had seen a relative weakness versus the pacific and most of it came down to South American grain season not panning out like everyone expected. However, they said that because this will eventually come on the market and most likely in next few months, that there could be a more positive impact due to the fact that it will coincide with other seasonal aspects such as the U.S. grain season. Do you think that is that your view, how do you look at that in the near-term? BlueShore: Okay, okay, great. That I just want to see if that was preceding it looks like it is. My next two questions are more industry focus, one of your competitors in the call they were talking today recently about, the slowdown in the Atlantic basin in the second quarter which was, just for the first time and I guess they said in 30 years, they had seen a relative weakness versus the pacific and most of it came down to South American grain season not panning out like everyone expected. However, they said that because this will eventually come on the market and most likely in next few months, that there could be a more positive impact due to the fact that it will coincide with other seasonal aspects such as the U.S. grain season. Do you think that is that your view, how do you look at that in the near-term?

We are happy if something like that happens, we do not base our calculations on that, we have also suffered the weakness in the Atlantic because also like many other people we had repositioned some of our Supramaxes from the Pacific to the Atlantic, so that we are fully balanced, but both markets were very weak and we suffered and I think we suffered those in the second quarter of this year, because of the continued pressure in the Capesize rates, mainly because despite the fact that China imported much more iron ore this year than the last year, still most of those imports came from Australia while Brazil was down in volume of iron ore exported to China. And therefore the tonne miles were reduced. And that’s why we think that the weakness of the market on the Capesize that’s what’s resulted in the weakness. But we expect that Brazil will pick up in the second half of this year. And that’s why we are quite optimistic about Brazil’s iron ore exports to China.

Okay. Great, great. And my final question is a little bit more general but considering the recent election of very business-friendly politician and party in India and, the plurality that they have to get things done, are you starting to hear about or seeing any increased import demand or shipping demand, because they specifically said the first thing they’re going to do is increase infrastructure spending. And considering how weak India has been in the last few years. That could be hitting if I assume, I just want to, if you heard anything about that, increase coal or iron ore or anything like that? BlueShore: Okay. Great, great. And my final question is a little bit more general but considering the recent election of very business-friendly politician and party in India and, the plurality that they have to get things done, are you starting to hear about or seeing any increased import demand or shipping demand, because they specifically said the first thing they’re going to do is increase infrastructure spending. And considering how weak India has been in the last few years. That could be hitting if I assume, I just want to, if you heard anything about that, increase coal or iron ore or anything like that?

I think that’s an very important point that you make, we have all been very happy with the changes and listening to what’s happening with India, we haven’t felt it yet in the market, but we think it’s a matter of time that India will start importing more and on the coal side, but also that I think with the declarations that infrastructure projects will start. I think that will give another boost in our market, because up to now we had China, and India was lagging but India will also be an additional source of increased trade.

Great. Thank you. That’s all of my questions. Thank you gentlemen. BlueShore: Great. Thank you. That’s all of my questions. Thank you gentlemen.

Thank you.

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) And your next question comes from the line of Jonas Kraft from Pareto. Please go ahead.

Good evening gentlemen.

Good evening gentlemen.

Hello.

Hello. I will be very-very quick most of my questions have actually already been answered. And returning to the market and your expectation now for the latter half of the year is the market moves higher as you expect, will you consider fixing some of your vessels on longer time charters or will you continue riding the spot market and complying them in their shorter term duce market?

Hello. I will be very-very quick most of my questions have actually already been answered. And returning to the market and your expectation now for the latter half of the year is the market moves higher as you expect, will you consider fixing some of your vessels on longer time charters or will you continue riding the spot market and complying them in their shorter term duce market?

That’s also a good question because we discussed this on our weekly meeting weekly management meeting about what level would be a level that would start considering chartering vessels longer term. But for the time being we don’t have this problem because charter rates remain quite low, remain quite low compared also to the 10 year average, if you exclude also two years of the super cycle still we’re a much below these levels on the Capes. But of course if the market picks up and we see market rates to be at a level where we feel confident that it’s worth start hedging our position than as we’re doing for the interest rates we'll be doing also for the charter rates and probably we’ll start chartering vessels longer term, but not at this point but not at this point.

Will you share what levels you are then thinking about?

Will you share what levels you are then thinking about?

Well I think we don’t take but at this point when you have one and two year rates for Capes at a little bit below 25,000, we don’t feel that’s an appropriate level to charter.

Fair enough, thank you very much gentlemen.

Fair enough, thank you very much gentlemen.

Thank you.

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) There seems to be no further questions at this time gentlemen. I would now like to pass the floor back to the speaker today for any closing remarks. Thank you.

Thank you very much for attending the call on our Q1 results, next week is Posidonia week in Greece where many people are coming from all around the world, I think it’s going to be an important meeting over the shipping world. And that many positive news will come out from Posidonia and for the market going forward. Thank you very much for attending the call.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude your conference for today. Thank you all for participating and you may now disconnect.