DryShips Inc. Reports Financial and Operating Results for the Third Quarter 2012
November 14, 2012, Athens, Greece.
DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ: DRYS), or the Company, an
international provider of marine transportation services for drybulk and petroleum cargoes, and
through its majority owned subsidiary, Ocean Rig UDW Inc., or Ocean Rig, of offshore deepwater
drilling services, today announced its unaudited financial and operating results for the third quarter
ended September 30, 2012.
Third Quarter 2012 Financial Highlights
Included in the third quarter 2012 results are:
• Costs associated with the 10-year class survey for the Eirik Raude of $16.8 million, or $0.04 per share;
• Non-cash write offs associated with the full repayment of the $1.04 billion senior secured credit facility totaling $18.3 million, or $0.05 per share; and
• Non-cash mark-to-market gains on interest rate swaps totaling $3.7 million or $0.01 per share. Excluding the above items, the Company’s net results would have amounted to a net loss of $33.3 million, or $0.09 per share. (1) The Company reported Adjusted EBITDA of $141.0 million for the third quarter of 2012, as compared to $172.9 million for the third quarter of 2011. (2)
Recent Events
• Pursuant to Ocean Rig’s previous announcements related to potential contract awards for the Ocean Rig Poseidon and Ocean Rig Athena, Ocean Rig has been awarded two three-year contracts for each rig for drilling in Angola from two different major international oil companies.
• On October 24, 2012, the Company entered into a secured credit facility with ABN AMRO, Korea Development Bank and Korea Trade Insurance Corporation, or KSURE, for a $107.7 million senior secured term loan facility to partially finance our tankers, Alicante, Mareta and Bordeira. The term of the facility is 6 years and the repayment profile is 12 years.
• As of September 30, 2012, the Company was not in compliance with certain loan-to-value ratios contained in certain of its original loan agreements under which a total of $157.3 million was outstanding as of that date. As a result, the Company may be required to prepay indebtedness or provide additional collateral to its lenders in the form of cash amounting to $77.2 million, in order to comply with these ratios.
• On September 27, 2012, we entered into supplemental agreements under our $518.8 million senior loan facilities and $110.0 million junior loan facilities, each dated March 31, 2006, as amended. Under these supplemental agreements, we agreed to pledge 7,800,000 common shares of Ocean Rig in favor of the lending syndicates in order to remedy the value maintenance clause shortfall.
• On September 20, 2012, Ocean Rig’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Drill Rigs Holdings Inc., issued $800.0 million of aggregate principal amount of 6.50% Senior Secured Notes due 2017 offered in a private offering, resulting in net proceeds of approximately $782.0 million. Ocean Rig used a portion of the net proceeds of the sale of the notes to repay the full amount outstanding under its $1.04 billion senior secured credit facility.
• In July 2012, Ocean Rig formally commenced syndication of a $1.35 billion senior secured term loan facility to partially finance our drillship newbuilding hulls Ocean Rig Mylos, Ocean Rig Skyros and Ocean Rig Athena. This facility will be led by DNB and Nordea and is expected to have a commercial tranche and two export credit agency, or ECA, tranches. Ocean Rig has received conditional commitments for the commercial tranche and one of the ECA tranches, and expects to finalize this transaction during the first quarter of 2013.
(1) The net result is adjusted for the minority interests of 35% not owned by Dryships Inc. common stockholders.
(2) Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP measure; please see later in this press release for a reconciliation to net income.
George Economou, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Company, commented:
"The shipping market continues to be severely depressed. Both tanker and drybulk spot charter rates have been at historic low levels – well below cash breakeven rate – for some time. Unfortunately this is coming at a time when our lucrative legacy charters continue to expire on a staggered basis. We have contract coverage of 33% and 22% of the calendar days for 2013 and 2014, respectively.
The deteriorating economic situation in Europe, together with BASEL III capital requirements, have led to a number of shipping banks with large portfolios to exit the sector. High profile restructurings and payment defaults have started to take their toll on the few remaining lenders. This comes at a time when we have significant capital expenditures to finance our drybulk and tanker newbuilding programs. The lack of liquidity is further exacerbated by falling assets values, which continued to decline during the quarter.
The optimization of our drybulk and tanker newbuilding programs is our top priority right now and we are in discussions with the shipyards in this respect to reduce and prolong our CAPEX program. We are in a challenging environment so these negotiations will be difficult and drawn out but we believe a win-win solution could be found.
Our shareholding in Ocean Rig UDW Inc. provides some flexibility in addressing the capital needs of our shipping segment. For example, we have recently pledged (and will continue to pledge) some of our Ocean Rig shares to our banks to remedy covenant breaches. We continue to be bullish about the prospects for Ocean Rig. The backlog currently stands at $4.5 billion over three years and provides Ocean Rig with substantial cash flow visibility and growth. Given strong industry fundamentals and the fact that there are very few ultra-deepwater units available in 2013, we expect to further increase our already substantial backlog by entering into long-term contracts for our two remaining units available in 2013. We continue to build on the Ocean Rig story and have positioned the company to build further on this strong platform to become the preferred contractor in the ultra-deepwater sector.”
Financial Review: 2012 Third Quarter
The Company recorded a net loss of $51.3 million, or $0.13 basic and diluted loss per share, for the three-month period ended September 30, 2012, as compared to a net income of $25.0 million, or $0.07 basic and diluted earnings per share, for the three-month period ended September 30, 2011. Adjusted EBITDA was $141.0 million for the third quarter of 2012, as compared to $172.9 million for the same period in 2011.(1)
For the drybulk carrier segment, net voyage revenues (voyage revenues minus voyage expenses) amounted to $41.1 million for the three-month period ended September 30, 2012, as compared to $85.5 million for the three-month period ended September 30, 2011. For the offshore drilling segment, revenues from drilling contracts increased by $59.7 million to $285.7 million for the threemonth period ended September 30, 2012, as compared to $226.0 million for the same period in 2011. For the tanker segment, net voyage revenues amounted to $9.0 million for the three-month period ended September 30, 2012, as compared to $3.3 million for the same period in 2011. Total vessels’, drilling rigs’ and drillships’ operating expenses and total depreciation and amortization increased to $181.1 million and $84.6 million, respectively, for the three-month period ended September 30, 2012, from $105.7 million and $71.0 million, respectively, for the three-month period ended September 30, 2011. Total general and administrative expenses increased to $35.3 million in the third quarter of 2012 from $28.4 million during the comparative period in 2011. Interest and finance costs, net of interest income, amounted to $51.9 million for the three-month period ended September 30, 2012, compared to $36.0 million for the three-month period ended September 30, 2011.
(1) Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP measure; please see later in this press release for a reconciliation to net income.
Full report at: www.dryships.com
About DryShips Inc.
DryShips Inc. is an owner of drybulk carriers and tankers that operate worldwide. Through its majority owned subsidiary, Ocean Rig UDW Inc., DryShips owns and operates 10 offshore ultra deepwater drilling units, comprising of 2 ultra deepwater semisubmersible drilling rigs and 8 ultra deepwater drillships, 3 of which remain to be delivered to Ocean Rig during 2013 and 1 is scheduled for delivery during 2015. DryShips owns a fleet of 46 drybulk carriers (including newbuildings), comprising 12 Capesize, 28 Panamax, 2 Supramax and 4 newbuilding Very Large Ore Carriers (VLOC) with a combined deadweight tonnage of approximately 5.1 million tons, and 12 tankers (including newbuildings), comprising 6 Suezmax and 6 Aframax, with a combined deadweight tonnage of over 1.6 million tons. DryShips’ common stock is listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market where it trades under the symbol “DRYS.” Visit the Company’s website at www.dryships.com
DryShips Inc. press release