2026 18th Annual Capital Link Shipping & Marine Services Forum | Energy Security and Shipping

So because of having a very strong balance sheet, always been a cash-rich company, again to our detriment up until recently, we were able to always have the liquidity, enhance optionality and adaptability to move quickly and take advantage of uh the situations that that were coming across a case in point uh a five vessel fleet acquisition from an original company that we bought with cash uh two years three years ago uh when most of our competitors that that were bidding on that fleet were uh looking for for uh for uh to to raise capital and so we were there and we were able to write a check very quickly we won the deal uh similarly uh we ordered we are we have become recently uh probably I would suggest by one vessel the largest uh a shuttle tanker operator in in Brazil again uh this allowed us to uh uh to to go into the our liquidity over the years and the cast build up on the company gave the comfort to the Petrobras of the walls and the action of the world to honor us with very long-term contracts.

So the resilience of the company in terms of balance strength and fleet modernity and fleet diversification has enabled the company to be resilient over the years and grow while taking advantage of the cyclicality.

Now, as I said earlier, investors over the years, did not like that model, so they were quite fixated in companies that operated a single asset and were taking advantage of the market.

Thank God this has changed.

Today, we're seeing investors being more discerning in their analysis of shipping.

Finally, they view shipping as a hedge to global geopolitical turmoil.

And obviously, through the current situation, They see the benefits that the shipping industry and the oil tanker industry is providing to the world.

And ourselves, like most of our peers, we have seen our surprises because of that double.

I mean, just before the turmoil, the war in Iran, our stock was lingering at $20.

and today we're touching $50.

So it seems that investors are beginning to appreciate companies with a diversified fleet and flexible employment to take advantage of the current situation.