Navios Maritime Cuts Cash Distributions as Its Profit Drops

Greek owner and operator of container and dry bulk vessels Navios Maritime Partners has seen its revenues decrease by more than 10 percent to USD 53.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2015, from USD 59.4 million in the same period of 2014.

Navios said that the drop in revenue is mainly attributable to a decrease in the time charter equivalent from USD 20,388 in the fourth quarter of 2014 to USD 18,223 for the fourth quarter of 2015.

According to the company, the recorded net income for the three months ended December 31, 2015 is USD 7.8 million, while net income for the same period a year earlier was at USD 13.4 million.

The company has seen a decrease in its annual net income from USD 74.8 million in 2014, to USD 41.8 million in 2015, while revenues for 2015 were down slightly at USD 223.7 million compared to USD 227.3 million in the previous year.

“For 2015, we reported USD 153.3 million of EBITDA and earned USD 41.8 million of net income,” Angeliki Frangou, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Navios Partners, said.

Additionally, the prolonged weakness in the dry bulk industry has caused the Board of Navios to suspend the quarterly cash distributions to its unitholders including the distribution for the quarter ended December 31, 2015.

“While Navios Partners is healthy, we announced the necessary, but painful decision to eliminate distributions given our untenable cost of capital, the inability to know when markets will restore and the opportunities to acquire assets at attractive prices,” Frangou said.

“We did not take this decision lightly. However, we believe that reallocating cash flow to growth opportunities is in the best long-term interests of unitholders when Navios Partners does not have access to equity capital. Moreover, given current distressed market conditions, we believe that Navios Partners can be a unique platform for growth. While unitholders will forego near-term cash flows, Navios Partners should be able to create meaningful future distributable cash flow, whether through capital gains or a healthy charter market, assuming the market improves overtime,” Frangou added.