Navios Maritime Acquisition’s Net Income Surges in 2015

As 2015 was a strong year for the tanker shipping market, the Monaco-based owner and operator of tanker vessels Navios Maritime Acquisition Corporation said that its full year net income skyrocketed to USD 89.7 million from USD 13 million reported in 2014.

The fourth quarter of 2015 turned out to be a bit slower than a year before as the company reported a net income of USD 20.1 million compared to USD 27 million reached in the same period a year earlier.

“Navios Acquisition reported net income of USD 89.7 million or USD 0.57 per share for the full year of 2015. We declared a dividend of USD 0.05 per share for the quarter, resulting in a dividend yield of about 10.5 percent. We also repurchased about 2.7 million shares of common stock under our share repurchase program, providing an additional return of about 1.8 percent,” Angeliki Frangou, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Navios Acquisition, said.

During the fourth quarter of 2015 Navios Acquisition took delivery of two very large crude carriers (VLCCs), namely, the 2008-built, 297,395 dwt Nave Photon and the 2009-built, 297,188 dwt Nave Spherical, for a purchase price of USD 64.5 million and USD 68.5 million, respectively.

Additionally, in December of 2015, the company entered into a term loan facility of up to USD 44 million with BNP Paribas for the post-delivery financing of an LR1 product tanker and an MR2 product tanker, which matures in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Navios Acquisition currently owns 38 vessels, all of which are currently on-the-water.

“All our vessels are on-the-water and are generating cash flow. We have no material debt maturity before 2021 or any committed growth capex. In addition, while our leverage increased slightly in the fourth quarter of 2015 as a result of taking delivery of two vessels, we expect net debt to decline in 2016 through the cash flow we expect to generate,” she added.

As of February 10, 2016, Navios Acquisition said that it had contracted 84.2 percent and 44.3 percent of its available days on a charter-out basis for 2016 and 2017, expecting to generate revenues of approximately USD 194.6 million and USD 97.8 million. The average contractual daily charter-out rate for the fleet is expected to be USD 19,238 and USD 22,475 for 2016 and 2017.