Castor Maritime Inc. Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year Results for 2024

 

Limassol, Cyprus, May 14, 2025 – Castor Maritime Inc. (NASDAQ: CTRM) (“Castor” or the “Company”), a diversified global shipping and energy company, today announced its results for the three months and year ended December 31, 2024.

 

Highlights of the Year Ended December 31, 2024:

 

 

(1) EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are not recognized measures under United States generally accepted accounting principles (“U.S. GAAP”). Please refer to Appendix B for the definition of these measures and reconciliation to Net income / (Loss), the most directly comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

 

Fourth Quarter ended December 31, 2024, and 2023, Results

 

Total vessel revenues for the three months ended December 31, 2024, decreased to $15.0 million from $26.4 million in the same period of 2023. This variation was mainly driven by (i) the decrease in our Available Days (defined below) from 1,740 days in the three months ended December 31, 2023, to 1,180 days in the three months ended December 31, 2024, following the sale of seven dry bulk vessels during the six months ended June 30, 2024 and the sale of three dry bulk vessels in the fourth quarter of 2023, as partially offset by the acquisitions of the M/V Magic Celeste on August 16, 2024, M/V Raphaela on October 3, 2024 and M/V Magic Ariel on October 9, 2024 and (ii) the decrease in prevailing charter rates of our dry bulk vessels.

 

Revenue from services for the three months ended December 31, 2024, amounted to $1.2 million and relates to revenue earned from our newly acquired subsidiary, MPC Capital, for the period from December 16, 2024 (the date on which the MPC Capital acquisition was consummated) to December 31, 2024. Revenue from services is generated through the following streams: (i) transaction services, (ii) management services for companies and assets, and (iii) ship management services.

 

There was an increase in voyage expenses to $1.2 million in the three months ended December 31, 2024, from $1.1 million in the same period of 2023, which was mainly associated with the increase of port and other expenses, partially offset by the decrease of brokerage commissions due to the decrease in our Available Days and prevailing charter rates of our dry bulk vessels.

 

Vessel operating expenses decreased by $3.8 million to $6.3 million in the three months ended December 31, 2024 from $10.1 million in the same period of 2023, mainly reflecting the decrease in the Ownership Days of our fleet to 1,186 days in the three months ended December 31, 2024, from 1,740 days in the same period in 2023.

Cost of revenue from services for the three months ended December 31, 2024, amounted to $1.1 million and relates to expenses for purchased services and employee expenses from our newly acquired subsidiary MPC Capital for the period from December 16, 2024 to December 31, 2024.

 

Management fees in the three months ended December 31, 2024 amounted to $1.3 million, whereas in the same period of 2023, management fees totaled $1.7 million. This decrease in management fees is due to the decrease in the total number of Ownership Days for which our managers charge us a daily management fee following the sales of the dry bulk vessels mentioned above, partly offset by a management fee adjustment for inflation under our Amended and Restated Master Management Agreement with effect from July 1, 2024.

 

The decrease in depreciation and amortization costs by $0.9 million to $4.0 million in the three months ended December 31, 2024, from $4.9 million in the same period of 2023, mainly reflects the decrease in our Ownership Days following the sale of seven dry bulk vessels during the six months ended June 30, 2024 and the sale of three dry bulk vessels in the fourth quarter of 2023, partially offset by the acquisition of two dry bulk vessels and one containerships vessel during the second half of 2024.

 

General and administrative expenses in the three months ended December 31, 2024, amounted to $8.5 million, whereas, in the same period of 2023, general and administrative expenses totaled $1.3 million. This increase mainly reflects the increased costs related to the acquisition of MPC Capital.

 

Loss on vessels held for sale in the three months ended December 31, 2024, amounted to $3.6 million, representing the expected loss from the sale of the containership vessel M/V Ariana A during the next twelve-month period. We did not record any loss on any vessels held for sale during the three months ended December 31, 2023. During the three months ended December 31, 2023, for the dry bulk vessels that were classified as vessels held for sale, no loss on vessels held for sale was recorded, since each vessel’s estimated fair value less costs to sell exceeded each vessel’s carrying value.

 

Net gain from equity method investments in the three months ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, amounted to $2.7 million and $0, respectively, representing our share in jointly owned companies or equity method investments (all of which relate to the asset management segment).

During the three months ended December 31, 2024, we incurred net interest costs and finance costs amounting to $0.02 million compared to $1.4 million during the same period in 2023. The decrease is mainly associated with the drop in our weighted average indebtedness.

 

Other (expenses)/income, net in the three months ended December 31, 2024, amounted to $(25.6) million, which includes a loss of $(28.0) million from our investments in listed equity securities, partially offset by dividend income on equity securities of $2.0 million and dividend income of $0.4 million from our investment in 140,000 1.00% Series A Fixed Rate Cumulative Perpetual Convertible Preferred Shares of Toro (the “Toro Series A Preferred Shares”). The loss of $(28.0) million from our investments in listed equity securities includes an unrealized loss of $(24.1) million, mostly related to revaluing our investments in listed equity securities at period end market rates.

 

Other income, net in the three months ended December 31, 2023, amounted to $19.1 million, which mainly includes (i) the unrealized gain of $18.6 million from revaluing our investments in listed equity securities at period end market rates, (ii) dividend income on equity securities of $0.1 million and (iii) dividend income of $0.4 million from our investment in the Toro Series A Preferred Shares.

Recent Financial Developments Commentary:

Liquidity/Financing/Cash flow update

Our consolidated cash position (including our restricted cash) as of December 31, 2024, decreased by $33.0 million to $87.9 million, as compared to our cash position on December 31, 2023, which amounted to $120.9 million. The decrease was mainly the result of: (i) $41.9 million of net operating cash flows received during the year ended December 31, 2024, (ii) $107.9 million inflow of net proceeds from the sales of the M/V Magic Moon, M/V Magic Nova, M/V Magic Orion, M/V Magic Nebula, M/V Magic Venus, M/V Magic Vela and M/V Magic Horizon, (iii) inflows of $1.4 million of proceeds from a claim, (iv) $50.0 million of net proceeds following the issuance of additional Series D Preferred Shares to Toro, (v) $100.0 million proceeds related to the Toro term loan facility, as offset by (vi) $86.9 million for scheduled principal repayments, early prepayments in connection with the sale of vessels and voluntary prepayments, on our debt, (vii) the acquisition of MPC Capital for $192.0 million, net of $28.0 million in cash held by MPC Capital and $1.0 million included in assets held for sale on the acquisition date, (viii) the acquisitions of the M/V Magic Celeste, the M/V Raphaela and M/V Magic Ariel amounting to $72.2 million, (ix) net outflows of $7.0 million associated with the purchase and sale of equity securities, (x) $2.5 million of dividends paid relating to Series D Preferred and (xi) $1.1 million for payments related to the repurchase in May 2024 of our outstanding Common Share Purchase Warrants issued on April 7, 2021.

 

As of December 31, 2024, our total debt, gross of unamortized deferred loan fees, was $103.7 million, of which $11.1 million is repayable within one year, as compared to $86.6 million of gross total debt as of December 31, 2023, an increase mainly due to the $100.0 million senior term loan facility with Toro offset by the prepayments in connection with vessel dispositions and voluntary prepayments of our long term debt.

 

Loan prepayments

On December 3, 2024, we fully repaid the amount of $1.6 million that remained outstanding under the $11.0 million senior secured term loan facility with Alpha Bank S.A, secured against two dry bulk vessels (the M/V Magic P and M/V Magic Moon).

 

Recent Business Developments Commentary:

 

Senior term loan facility agreement of $100.0 million from Toro

 

On December 11, 2024, Castor entered into a facility agreement with Toro to receive a $100.0 million senior term loan facility from Toro (the “Term Loan”) which was drawn down on the same date.

 

 

 

On March 24, 2025, March 31, 2025 and April 29, 2025, Castor performed partial prepayments to Toro related to the Term Loan amounting to $13,500,000, $34,000,000 and $14,000,000, respectively, in addition to $2,500,000 as part of the scheduled repayment of the loan. On May 5, 2025, we prepaid the amount of $36,000,000 remaining outstanding as of  that date.

 

Issuance of an additional 50,000 Series D Preferred Shares

 

On December 12, 2024, Castor issued an additional 50,000 Series D Preferred Shares with a stated amount of $1,000 per share to Toro for a total consideration of $50.0 million in cash. Toro may not dispose of any of the Castor Series D Preferred Shares for a period of 180 days after the closing date of the transaction.

 

 

Acquisition of MPC Capital

 

On December 12, 2024, the Company, through a wholly owned subsidiary, entered into a share purchase agreement, pursuant to which the Company agreed to acquire from MPC Holding, subject to certain terms and conditions, 26,116,378 shares of common stock of MPC Capital, representing 74.09% of MPC Capital’s outstanding common stock, for a cash price of €7.00 per share, equivalent to aggregate consideration of €182.8 million (approximately $192.0 million at the time of the transaction), excluding transaction related costs. On December 16, 2024, the acquisition was completed. MPC Capital is an asset manager specializing in infrastructure projects in the maritime and energy sectors. Partnering and co-investing with institutional investors, MPC Capital provides tailor-made investment solutions, project access, and integrated asset management expertise, including technical and commercial ship management. MPC Capital is a public limited liability company incorporated and domiciled in Germany and is listed on the Scale Segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since 2000.

Vessel Acquisitions

We have completed the acquisition of the two vessels listed below:

 

 

Sale of vessels

We have completed the sale of the four vessels listed below:

 

 

During the three months ended December 31, 2024, we operated on average 12.9 vessels earning a Daily TCE Rate(2) of $11,648 as compared to an average of 18.9 vessels earning a Daily TCE Rate(2) of $14,530 during the same period in 2023.

 

Our employment profile as of May 13, 2025 is presented immediately below.

 

(2) Daily TCE Rate is not a recognized measure under U.S. GAAP. Please refer to Appendix B for the definition and reconciliation of this measure to Total vessel revenues, the most directly comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

Containerships
Vessel Name	Type	Capacity (dwt)	Year Built	Country of Construction	Type of Employment	Daily Gross Charter Rate ($/day)	Estimated Redelivery Date
							Earliest	Latest
Raphaela	Containership	26,811	2008	Turkey	TC period	$19,250	Oct-25	Feb-25

 

Financial Results Overview of Continuing Operations:

Set forth below are selected financial data of our dry bulk, containerships and asset management segments (continuing operations) for each of the three months and year ended December 31, 2024, and 2023, respectively:

 

(1)        EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are not recognized measures under U.S. GAAP. Please refer to Appendix B of this release for the definition and reconciliation of these measures to Net (loss)/income, the most directly comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

Consolidated Fleet Selected Financial and Operational Data:

Set forth below are selected financial and operational data which are applicable only for our dry bulk and containership segments for each of the three months and year ended December 31, 2024, and 2023, respectively, that we believe are useful in analyzing trends in our results of operations.

 

Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive (Loss)/Income

 

 

Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets

Unaudited Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows

 

Non-GAAP Financial Information

 

Daily Time Charter (“TCE”) Rate. The Daily Time Charter Equivalent Rate (“Daily TCE Rate”) is a measure of the average daily revenue performance of a vessel. The Daily TCE Rate is not a measure of financial performance under U.S. GAAP (non-GAAP measure) and should not be considered as an alternative to any measure of financial performance presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP. We calculate Daily TCE Rate by dividing total revenues (time charter and/or voyage charter revenues, and/or pool revenues, net of charterers’ commissions), less voyage expenses, by the number of Available Days during that period. Under a time charter, the charterer pays substantially all the vessel voyage related expenses. However, we may incur voyage related expenses when positioning or repositioning vessels before or after the period of a time or other charter, during periods of commercial waiting time or while off-hire during dry-docking. Under voyage charters, the majority of voyage expenses are generally borne by us whereas for vessels in a pool, such expenses are borne by the pool operator. The Daily TCE Rate is a standard shipping industry performance measure used primarily to compare period-to-period changes in a company’s performance and management believes that the Daily TCE Rate provides meaningful information to our investors since it compares daily net earnings generated by our vessels irrespective of the mix of charter types (i.e., time charter, voyage charter, or other) under which our vessels are employed between the periods while it further assists our management in making decisions regarding the deployment and use of our vessels and in evaluating our financial performance. Our calculation of the Daily TCE Rates may be different from and may not be comparable to that reported by other companies.

The following table reconciles the calculation of the Daily TCE Rate which is applicable only for our dry bulk and containership fleet to Total vessel revenues (applicable only to dry bulk and containership segments) for the periods presented (amounts in U.S. dollars, except for Available Days):

EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are not measures of financial performance under U.S. GAAP, do not represent and should not be considered as an alternative to net income, operating income, cash flow from operating activities or any other measure of financial performance presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP. We define EBITDA as earnings before interest and finance costs (if any), net of interest income, taxes (when incurred), depreciation and amortization of deferred dry-docking costs. Adjusted EBITDA represents EBITDA adjusted to exclude unrealized gain/loss on equity securities and non-recurring expenses, which the Company believes are not indicative of the ongoing performance of its core operations. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are used as supplemental financial measure by management and external users of financial statements to assess our operating performance. We believe that EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA assists our management by providing useful information that increases the comparability of our operating performance from period to period and against the operating performance of other companies in our industry that provide EBITDA information. This increased comparability is achieved by excluding the potentially disparate effects between periods or companies of interest, other financial items, depreciation and amortization and taxes for EBITDA, and further excluding unrealized gains/loss on securities and non-recurring expenses for Adjusted EBITDA, which items are affected by various and possibly changing financing methods, capital structure and historical cost basis and which items may significantly affect net income between periods. We believe that including EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as measures of operating performance benefits investors in (a) selecting between investing in us and other investment alternatives and (b) monitoring our ongoing financial and operational strength. Our basis of computing EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as presented below may be different from and may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies.

 

The following table reconciles EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA to Net (loss)/ income from continuing operations, the most directly comparable U.S. GAAP financial measure, for the periods presented:

 

 

 

Matters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements. We intend such forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”) and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements, which are other than statements of historical facts. We are including this cautionary statement in connection with this safe harbor legislation. The words “believe”, “anticipate”, “intend”, “estimate”, “forecast”, “project”, “plan”, “potential”, “will”, “may”, “should”, “expect”, “pending” and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions, including without limitation, our management’s examination of current or historical operating trends, data contained in our records and other data available from third parties. Although we believe that these assumptions were reasonable when made, because these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond our control, we cannot assure you that we will achieve or accomplish these forward-looking statements, including these expectations, beliefs or projections. In addition to these important factors, other important factors that, in our view, could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward‐looking statements include generally: the effects of the spin-off of our tanker business, the effects of our acquisition of MPC Münchmeyer Petersen Capital AG, our business strategy, expected capital spending and other plans and objectives for future operations, dry bulk and containership market conditions and trends, including volatility in charter rates (particularly for vessels employed in short-term time charters or index linked period time charters), factors affecting supply and demand, fluctuating vessel values, opportunities for the profitable operations of dry bulk and container vessels and the strength of world economies, changes in the size and composition of our fleet, our ability to realize the expected benefits from our past or future vessel acquisitions, our ability to realize the expected benefits of vessel acquisitions, increased transactions costs and other adverse effects (such as lost profit) due to any failure to consummate any sale of our vessels, our relationships with our current and future service providers and customers, including the ongoing performance of their obligations, dependence on their expertise, compliance with applicable laws, and any impacts on our reputation due to our association with them, our ability to borrow under existing or future debt agreements or to refinance our debt on favorable terms and our ability to comply with the covenants contained therein, in particular due to economic, financial or operational reasons, our continued ability to enter into time or voyage charters with existing and new customers and to re-charter our vessels upon the expiry of the existing charters, changes in our operating and capitalized expenses, including bunker prices, dry-docking, insurance costs, costs associated with regulatory compliance, and costs associated with climate change, our ability to fund future capital expenditures and investments in the acquisition and refurbishment of our vessels (including the amount and nature thereof and the timing of completion thereof, the delivery and commencement of operations dates, expected downtime and lost revenue), instances of off-hire, due to vessel upgrades and repairs, competition in the shipping and energy infrastructure management business, our ability to identify and develop new investment projects, our ability to maintain and increase the volume of the assets under our management and therefore our ability to earn fees, the financial performance or our investees over which we do not exercise control, fluctuations in interest rates and currencies, including the value of the U.S. dollar relative to other currencies, any malfunction or disruption of information technology systems and networks that our operations rely on or any impact of a possible cybersecurity breach, existing or future disputes, proceedings or litigation, future sales of our securities in the public market and our ability to maintain compliance with applicable listing standards, volatility in our share price, including due to high volume transactions in our shares by retail investors, potential conflicts of interest involving affiliated entities and/or members of our board of directors, senior management and certain of our service providers that are related parties, general domestic and international political conditions or events, including armed conflicts such as the war in Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East, acts of piracy or maritime aggression, such as recent maritime incidents involving vessels in and around the Red Sea, sanctions, “trade wars”, tariffs, global public health threats and major outbreaks of disease, changes in seaborne and other transportation, including due to the maritime incidents in and around the Red Sea, fluctuating demand for dry bulk and container vessels and/or disruption of shipping routes due to accidents, political events, international sanctions, international hostilities and instability, piracy or acts of terrorism, changes in governmental rules and regulations or actions taken by regulatory authorities, including changes to environmental regulations applicable to the shipping industry, accidents, the impact of adverse weather and natural disasters and any other factors described in our filings with the SEC. The information set forth herein speaks only as of the date hereof, and we disclaim any intention or obligation to update any forward looking statements as a result of developments occurring after the date of this communication, except to the extent required by applicable law. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all or any of these factors. Further, we cannot assess the impact of each such factor on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to be materially different from those contained in any forward-looking statement. Please see our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a more complete discussion of these foregoing and other risks and uncertainties. These factors and the other risk factors described in this press release are not necessarily all of the important factors that could cause actual results or developments to differ materially from those expressed in any of our forward-looking statements. Given these uncertainties, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.

For further information please contact:

Petros Panagiotidis

Chief Executive Officer

Castor Maritime Inc.

Media Contact:

Kevin Karlis

Capital Link

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