Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp. announced its operating results for the fourth quarter and the year ended December 31, 2009. Dale Ploughman, the Company's Chief Executive Officer, stated: "Despite the difficult market conditions we are pleased to report strong results for 2009. These results reflect our strong cash flow, the high fleet utilization and our operational efficiency.

"2009 has been a transformational year for Seanergy. We managed to double our controlled fleet from 6 to 11 vessels with the acquisition of BET and we reinforced our capital structure with the conversion of the $28.5 million promissory note, issued in our business combination, into common stock. Recently, we completed an offering of common stock and successfully raised net proceeds of approximately $28 million for vessel acquisitions, expanding our shareholder base and improving the liquidity of our shares.

"We are committed to our goal of using the proceeds of the offering to expand our fleet with the proper acquisitions. We are focusing our resources on identifying vessel(s) with a view to maximizing benefits to the Company, as quickly as possible. We have already identified and inspected a couple of vessels which unfortunately have not met our surveyors' expectations. Our decisions aim is to safeguard the long term interests of our shareholders.

"We remain positive on the long-term outlook of the dry bulk market, as we expect that demand for core bulk commodities will remain strong. However, in the short term, we expect the market to continue to be volatile as there is uncertainty on the size of the orderbook and the global economic recovery is quite fragile."

Christina Anagnostara, the company's Chief Financial Officer, stated: "We are pleased to report strong results for 2009 with an average daily TCE, or time charter equivalent rate of $ 32,909 for the year. Our net income margin was approximately 37% of TCE and our free cash flow margin was approximately 59% of TCE.

"Our cash reserves as of December 31, 2009 were $63.6 million, reflecting $43.2 million in cash generated from operations. Our strong cash position enables us to meet remaining debt repayments of $22.7 million and anticipated capital expenditures of $3.6 million in 2010. Today, we have $85 million in cash and a healthy balance sheet allowing us to take advantage of market opportunities as they become available.

"During the year, we arranged new employment for our fleet and we now have time charter coverage for 95% of our fleet for 2010 and 51% for 2011 providing us with significant cash flow visibility. Therefore, we believe that we are in a very strong position to take advantage of market opportunities to expand our asset base revenue and profitability."

Fourth Quarter 2009 Financial Results
Net Revenues for the three month period ended December 31, 2009 decreased to $17.3 million from $28.3 million in the same quarter in 2008. This is mainly attributable to the lower market imposed time charter rates earned during the three month period ended December 31, 2009 as compared to the same period in 2008. The Company operated a fleet of 11 vessels on average during the fourth quarter of 2009, earning a TCE rate of $17,331 as compared to an average of 6 vessels and TCE rate of $50,652 during the fourth quarter of 2008.

EBITDA was $5.8 million for the three months ended December 31, 2009 as compared to -$25.6 million in the same quarter in 2008. Please refer to a subsequent section of the press release for a reconciliation of EBITDA to net income.

Operating Income amounted to $0.8 million for the three months ended December 31, 2009, as compared to an Operating Loss of $34 million for the same quarter in 2008. Net Loss was $3.2 million, or -$0.10 per basic and diluted share for the three months ended December 31, 2009, as compared to a Net Loss of $37.3 million, or -$1.67 per basic and diluted share, for the same quarter in 2008, based on weighted average common shares outstanding of 33,255,170and 22,341,857, respectively. The decrease in net loss of $34.1 million is mainly attributable to a vessel impairment loss of $4.5 million and a goodwill impairment loss of $44.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2008. The Company did not incur any such impairment losses in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Year ended December 31, 2009 Financial Results
Net Revenues for 2009 increased to $87.9 million as compared to $34.5 million in 2008, an increase of 155%. This increase is primarily due to the fact that the Company only operated for a portion of 2008 as it commenced its operations on August 2008. In addition, the Company got additional vessels during 2009 when it acquired a controlling interest in BET in August 2009. The Company operated a fleet of 7.9 vessels on average during 2009 as compared to 5.5 in 2008. This increase was partially offset by the lower market imposed time charter rates incurred during 2009. The TCE rate for 2009 amounted to $32,909 as compared to $49,994 in 2008. The decrease in TCE reflects the new time charter contracts at prevailing lower market rates.

EBITDA was $65.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2009, as compared to -$21.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2008. Please refer to a subsequent section of this press release for a reconciliation of EBITDA to net income.

Operating Income amounted to $40.4 million as compared to an Operating Loss of $31.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2008.

Net Income was $30.1 million, or $1.16 per basic share and $1.00 per diluted share, based on weighted average common shares outstanding of 25,882,967 basic and of 30,529,281 diluted for 2009, as compared to a Net Loss of $32 million or -$1.21 per both basic and diluted share, based on weighted average common shares outstanding of 26,452,291 for both basic and diluted shares in 2008. The improvement in Net Income is mainly attributable to the reasons described above with respect to the fourth quarter of 2009

Courtesy:marinelink.com