TOP Ships Inc. (the “Company” or “Top Ships”) (NASDAQ:TOPS), an international owner and operator of modern, fuel efficient “ECO” tanker vessels, announced today that after taking into account the most recent charter free vessel value estimates from a third party international broker, debt outstanding and cash, management estimates the Company’s net asset value (“NAV”) as of December 12, 2023 to be $344 million, increased from the previously-announced estimate of $285 million as of June 30, 2023. This translates into a NAV of $74.36 per common share (based on number of common shares currently outstanding) and $61.15 per common share on a fully diluted basis (assuming exercise of all the 1,488,478 outstanding warrants for cash).
Additionally, the Company announced today that following the latest charter fixtures of its two VLCCs, and after taking into account the maximum duration of the firm period of all charters, the previously-announced gross revenue backlog for the firm time charter period, including 50% of the Company’s JV vessels, as of June 30, 2023, has increased to $400 million.
The Company further announced that its Board of Directors is currently considering and reviewing the adoption of shareholder friendly measures, potentially including a share buyback plan.
The Company’s CEO said:
“As per yesterday’s market close, we are trading at a 71% discount to our current estimate of the fully-diluted Net Asset Value of the Company.
Top Ships has one of the most modern tanker fleets in the industry, with an average age of about three years, consisting of state-of-the-art vessels equipped with the latest eco-friendly and fuel-efficient specifications and features. Our time charters with high quality customers have been generating positive cashflow and income for the past two years and we expect that we will continue in the same way for 2023 and onwards.
The contracted revenue backlog of about $400 million is about 5 times the revenues for the entire year of 2022 and about 1.9 times our debt as presented on our balance sheet, net of cash, on June 30, 2023.