Quinn Fanning
Analyst · Seaport Global
Thank you, John. Good morning, everyone. As was highlighted in our earnings press release and 10-Q, upon completion of our financial restructuring on July 31, 2017, the company adopted fresh-start accounting and reports it's financial position and results of operations through July 31 as predecessor activities. We will continue to report our financial position and results of operations subsequent to July 31 as successor activities.
I'll also call your attention to the financial tables included with last evening's press release. Financial results, balance sheet data and select operating statistics are presented covering 5 quarters or equivalent periods straddling both predecessor and successor activities.
Operating and financial data is also presented by asset class and based on 4 geography-based reporting segments, reflecting our split during the quarter of the company's Africa/Europe segments into a European Mediterranean Sea segment and the West Africa segments.
As John noted, we reported a net loss for the 3 months ended March 31, 2018, of $39.2 million or $1.67 per common share. The net loss includes $6.2 million or $0.26 per share and noncash asset impairment charges related to 13 stacked vessels. Financial results for the quarter also reflect $15.2 million or $0.65 per common share of foreign exchange losses, $14.8 million of which or $0.63 per common share, which are included in equity and net losses of unconsolidated companies and was related to our Angola joint venture, Sonatide. I'll also note that anticipated foreign exchange losses in the just completed in March quarter, were previously disclosed as a subsequent event in our transition period Form 10-K that was filed on March 15.
Also noted in our earnings press release, was an updated mix of common shares and Jones Act-related New Creditor Warrants outstanding, which reflect continued conversion of New Creditor Warrants into common shares. As discussed in our last earnings conference call, we considered the New Creditor Warrants, each of which is exercisable to acquire a share of common stock at a price of $0.001 to be the economic equivalent to common shares. I call this to your attention in part to highlight, as John did, that the reported loss per share is based on approximately 24 million common shares and excludes approximately 6 million New Creditor Warrants due to U.S. GAAP's anti-dilution rules.
Returning to operating results, vessel revenue and vessel operating margin for the quarter ended March 31 was $87.5 million and $26.1 million, respectively. As a percentage of vessel revenue, vessel operating margin for the quarter was approximately 30%. General and administrative expense, excluding stock-based compensation, was approximately $21 million, which is down approximately $7 million quarter-over-quarter. Quarter-over-quarter trend reflects both cost-controlled measures and some unusual items in the December quarter.
As John noted, cost control and a cash flow breakeven remains a focus of the management team. I suspect that run rate G&A, excluding stock-based compensation, will be comfortably below $25 million as we exit 2018. It is likely, however, that we will record restructuring charges at some point in 2018 related to office closures and other downsizing activity.
Consolidated EBITDA for the 3 months ended March 31, 2018, which again, excludes $6.2 million in asset impairment charges, but includes $3 million of stock-based compensation expense and $15.2 million in foreign exchange losses was a negative $9.9 million. Adjusting for these 2 items, EBITDA for the quarter ended March 31, was approximately a positive $9.5 million, which is down from approximately $16.3 million of adjusted EBITDA in the December quarter.
Tables reconciling EBITDA to our net loss and cash provided by, or used in operating activities are on Page 26 of our press release.
Looking at the fleet, our average owned vessels in the March quarter was 217 vessels, which was down 12 vessels from the average number of vessels for the quarter ended December 31, 2017. Average active vessels in the March quarter were 138 vessels, which was down 2 vessels quarter-over-quarter. The stacked fleet at quarter end was 70 vessels, or down 19 vessel quarter-over-quarter, reflecting the net effect of vessel dispositions, newly stacked vessels and vessel reactivations.
Other than the March quarter having 2 pure days and 2 pure average active vessels, the primary driver of operating results in the March quarter, at least relative to the December quarter, was utilization of the active fleet. In particular, utilization of the active fleet at 70% in the March quarter, was down approximately 8 percentage points quarter-over-quarter. The quarter-over-quarter trend was most pronounced from the towing supply fleet that is assigned to the Middle East/Asia Pacific segment. But utilization of the active fleet was also down in regards to deepwater vessels assigned to the Europe/Mediterranean Sea segment and to a lesser extent, towing-supply vessels in the West Africa segment. This largely reflects additional vessels, commencing drydocks in the March quarter or otherwise being ready for work. We also had a number of vessels mobilizing to new jobs, including the vessels we moved to Canada, that John referenced in his opening remarks.
I think one of the analysts referred to this as a "air gap", I generally agree with that characterization, but we'll see how things play out in the June quarter subsequently.
Looking forward, while it may be premature to call it market bottom, we do expect an increase in vessel revenue in each of our 4 reporting segments in the June quarter, driven primarily by vessels that were in drydock the March quarter, that have now returned to work or expected to return to work from the June quarter. Second and third calendar quarters also tend to be better quarters in the northern hemisphere, due to weather and we expect seasonally utilization, if not average day rates to move up from the levels experienced in the first quarter.
Most industry participants expect higher utilization and day rates from the North Sea. Less appreciated is the potential for positive knock-on effects in the Mediterranean Sea and West Africa, as capacity migrates north through the summer season. Relative to the December quarter, average day rates at approximately $10,000 were relatively flat to the March quarter.
As outlook, our view remains that sustained improvement in day rates will require higher industry-wide utilization. That said, rates could and should move higher in those markets with seasonally higher activity levels, given the relatively limited number of currently inactive vessels that are still current with relevant class certifications and that are otherwise available to work on a prompt basis.
In regards to the quarter-end balance sheet, with $445 million of cash, net debt at March 31 was $4 million. Net working capital, excluding cash, was approximately $173 million. Cash used by operating activities for the period was approximately $6 million. Cash provided by investment activities was approximately $8 million, and disposition proceeds exceeded CapEx in the quarter. Cash used by financing activities in the March quarter was approximately $10 million, primarily driven by the final $8 million of required payments to creditors made in connection with our plan of reorganization. With the long-term assets, net properties and equipment, which primarily reflects the carrying value of 207 ships owned at March 31, was $814 million. This equates to approximately $4.6 million per active ship and approximately $2.4 million per stacked ship.
As additional data points, I will further note, that on average the carrying value of our 41 deepwater PSVs with cargo carrying capacities above 3,800 deadweight tons is approximately $8.7 million per vessel. 21 of those 41 vessels are less than 5 years old and have an average carrying value of approximately $9.5 million.
On average, the carrying value of our 67, 5,500 to 10,000 brake horsepower AHTS vessels was approximately $2.2 million. 45 of those 67 vessels are less than 10 years old and at March 31, had an average carrying value of approximately $2.6 million.
Shareholders equity at March 31 on a book basis, was approximately $1 billion or approximately $33 per common share in Jones Act-related warrant outstanding. That represents rough parity with where out stock closed last evening at an approximately 10% premium to where the stock opened this a.m. For those of you focused on any of the similar measures, however, keep in mind that our balance sheet was essentially mark-to-market for our post-restructuring adoption of fresh-start accounting.
And with that, I'll turn the call back over to John.