Image source: The Motley Fool.

DATE

Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• Chief Executive Officer - Mads Peter Zacho
• Chief Financial Officer - Gary Chapman
• Chief Commercial Officer - Oeyvind Lindeman
• Chief Investor Relations Officer - Randall Giveans

TAKEAWAYS

• Net Income -- $53.0 million, or $0.86 per share, representing an all-time record for the company and an increase from $21.5 million in the second quarter of 2025.
• Adjusted EBITDA -- $86.4 million, a record high compared to $60.1 million in the second quarter of 2025.
• Average TCE Rate -- $33,946 per day, an all-time high representing 20% growth from the $28,216 reported in the same period last year.
• Fleet Utilization -- 90.8%, increasing from 84.2% in the second quarter of 2025 and exceeding the company benchmark of 90%.
• Ethylene Terminal Throughput -- 374,278 tons, a record volume driven by increased demand from Europe and Asia for U.S. ethylene.
• Unigas Fleet Divestiture -- $183 million, the aggregate purchase price for eight gas carriers and a joint venture shareholding, with an expected net book gain of $65 million to $70 million.
• Capital Return Policy -- 35% of net income, comprising a combination of cash dividends and share repurchases under the company's updated policy.
• Dividend Increase -- $0.08 per share, representing the new fixed quarterly cash dividend starting in the third quarter of 2026, up from $0.07 per share.
• Total Cash Balance -- $362 million as of Aug. 3, 2026, following the draw of $57.6 million from a newbuild vessel financing facility.
• Vessel Sale Gain -- $15.3 million, the book gain recorded from the sale of the Navigator Pegasus for $30.5 million in April 2026.
• Newbuild Financing -- $121.8 million, the amount of a recently signed secured term loan facility to finance 70% of the cost of two ammonia newbuild vessels at 135 basis points plus SOFR.
• Net Debt to EBITDA -- 2.2x, falling from 2.5x at the end of the first quarter of 2026.
• Vessel Operating Expenses -- $47.1 million, or $9,554 per vessel per day, driven by higher crewing and logistics costs during the quarter.
• Handysize Order Book -- 11% of the fleet, providing a favorable supply dynamic as 17% of existing vessels in the segment are over 25 years old.
• Share Repurchases -- $14.2 million, the amount expected to be returned via buybacks between now and Sept. 30, 2026.
• Cash Breakeven -- $21,990 per vessel per day, estimated for 2026 and including $114 million of debt amortization.
• Debt Hedging -- 55% of the company's debt was either hedged or on a fixed interest rate basis at the end of the quarter.
• Morgan's Point Annual Capacity -- 1.55 million tons, with monthly nameplate capacity of approximately 130,000 tons.
• Revolving Credit Facility Draw -- $91 million, a precautionary draw made in April 2026 due to geopolitical uncertainty in the Middle East.
• Historical Capital Returns -- $300 million, the total amount returned to shareholders since December 2022 through dividends and share buybacks.

Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email [email protected]

RISKS

• Zacho stated, "Q3 is expected to see some normalization in TCE rates and terminal volumes," due to seasonal patterns and a tighter arbitrage on ethylene.
• Chapman stated, "we do expect TCE and utilization to moderate in the third quarter, also consistent with normal seasonal patterns," noting that the company remains subject to geopolitical uncertainty.
• Giveans stated, "summers are hot here in Houston, so that slightly impacts the terminal's operations," which can affect throughput volumes during the warmer months.

SUMMARY

Navigator Holdings Ltd. (NVGS -1.48%) reported record financial results for the second quarter of 2026, setting all-time highs in net income, EBITDA, and average charter rates. Management noted that geopolitical disruption in the Strait of Hormuz has served as a demand catalyst, as commercial shipping inefficiencies have redirected global customers toward North American supply chains for LPG, ethane, and ethylene. The company continued its fleet optimization strategy by signing definitive agreements to divest its Unigas joint venture fleet while securing financing for six newbuild vessels scheduled for future delivery.

• CEO Zacho indicated that while the Middle East conflict occurs on a tragic background, it is creating "real commercial tailwinds" for shipping demand due to global trade lane disruptions.
• Management confirmed that U.S. ethane remains the "lowest cost feedstock in the world," supporting long-term demand for the company's maritime transportation services.
• CFO Chapman stated that the company plans to repay $91 million in revolving credit facilities over the coming months as proceeds from the Unigas vessel sales are received.
• CCO Lindeman reported that only 20% of vessels that normally transit the Hormuz Strait are doing so, with many ships opting for the longer route via the Cape of Good Hope.
• The company is progressing toward a final investment decision for three ammonia bunkering terminals in Norway, which are supported by a Norwegian government grant covering 80% of projected capital expenditures.
• CCO Lindeman noted that "reliability on your supply chain" has become the top priority for customers, which favors U.S. Gulf Coast and East Coast exports over Middle Eastern sources.
• Management reported that the ethylene terminal at Morgan's Point has signed four new offtake contracts this year, with discussions for additional agreements ongoing.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• Handysize: A category of liquefied gas carriers with a capacity typically between 15,000 and 25,000 cubic meters.
• TCE (Time Charter Equivalent): A standard shipping industry performance measure used to compare period-to-period changes in a shipping company's performance despite changes in the mix of charter types.
• Ethylene Terminal: A specialized shore infrastructure facility used for the export and import of ethylene, a key petrochemical building block.
• Naphtha: A flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixture used as a feedstock for producing high-octane gasoline and as a raw material for the petrochemical industry.
• Take-or-pay contract: A provision in a contract under which a buyer must either take a specified amount of product or pay a penalty for not doing so.
• JOLCO (Japanese Operating Lease with Call Option): A specialized financing structure often used in the shipping industry for long-term vessel financing.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Randall Giveans: Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Navigator Holdings Conference Call for the Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results. On today's call, we have Mads Peter Zacho, Chief Executive Officer; Gary Chapman, Chief Financial Officer; Oeyvind Lindeman, Chief Commercial Officer; and myself, Randy Giveans, Chief Investor Relations Officer. I must advise you that this conference call is being recorded today. Now as we conduct today's presentation, we'll be making various forward-looking statements.

These statements include, but are not limited to, the future expectations, plans and prospects from both a financial and operational perspective and are based on management assumptions, forecasts and expectations as of today's date, August 5, 2026, and are as such, subject to material risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ significantly from our forward-looking information and financial forecast. Additional information about these factors and assumptions are included in our annual and quarterly reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. With that, I now pass the floor to our CEO, Mads Peter Zacho. Go ahead, Mads.

Mads Zacho: Good morning and good afternoon, and thank you very much for joining this Navigator Gas earnings call for Q2 2026. Before we get into the results, let me just say a few words about the Middle East. We continue to have no vessels operating in or transiting the Hormuz Strait, and we don't see any material operational impacts. As I'll touch on shortly, and though it's on a sad background, the conflict continues to create real commercial tailwinds for us. Please turn to Slide #4. Q2 2026 was an exceptional quarter, and I mean that in the most literal sense.

We set all-time records for net income, for EBITDA, for earnings per share and average TCE rate, all at the same quarter. And for a company that's been operating for over 25 years, that is quite special. Let me walk you through a couple of the highlights. On the commercial side, TCE rates hit a record high of almost $34,000 per day. This is up significantly from Q1 and up 20% from the same period last year. Utilization came in above our 90% benchmark. These are strong numbers across the board. Our ethylene export terminal at Morgan's Point delivered yet another record, 374 tons in the quarter. That follows from previous record that we set just 1 quarter ago.

Demand from Europe and Asia for U.S. ethylene continues to grow, driven by high naphtha prices and structural changes to how global crackers are sourcing their feedstock. We also signed a fourth new offtake contract in the quarter and discussions for further contracts remain active. On portfolio management, we completed the sale of Navigator Pegasus in April for approximately $31 million and a book gain of over $15 million. And in July, we signed the definitive agreement to divest the 8 Unigas Pool vessels for a combined $183 million. That's a significant transaction, and we expect most of those sales to complete during Q3.

We expect a net book gain on this transaction of $65 million to $70 million, and this again underscores the value of our vessel portfolio. We have indeed been quite consistent in booking net gains on our vessel sales. Financing for all 6 newbuild vessels are now in place, both the 4 Panda ethane/ethylene carriers and the 2 Coral ammonia newbuilds. Completing that financing package is a real milestone, and it was done at the most competitive terms ever for Navigator. The balance sheet is healthy. Available cash at quarter end was $226 million after significant debt repayments, shipyard payments and capital returns.

Our investment in ethane fuel solution is developing towards a final investment decision to build 3 ammonia bunkering terminals along the West Coast of Norway. It's supported by a significant Enova grant from the Norwegian government upon reaching final investment decision. On capital return, we are again delivering on our commitments. The Board has declared a dividend of $0.07 per share for Q2. And together with buybacks, we will return 35% of net income to shareholders, in line with our improved capital return policy. From Q3, we are raising the fixed cash dividend element to $0.08 per share. Now on the outlook. Q3 is expected to see some normalization in TCE rates and terminal volumes.

That's also consistent with the seasonal patterns and a tighter arbitrage on ethylene. The underlying demand picture, though, driven by the growing U.S. natural gas liquids production remains fully intact. And the Hormuz Strait situation continues to support demand for U.S. commodities across LPG, ethane and petrochemicals. On the supply side, the Handysize order book stands at just 11% of the fleet, while 17% of vessels are over 25 years old. The math on the fleet renewal continues to work in our favor. With that, I'll pass on the word to Gary, and please go ahead with a little bit more detail on the financials. Go ahead, Gary.

Gary Chapman: Thanks, Mads, and hello, everyone. Following on from where we left off on our last call in May this year, the tailwinds we described as we move through the second quarter did indeed arrive. And as Mads has said, we're pleased to report an exceptional second quarter results. This was achieved against a backdrop that included continued disruption across key global shipping corridors, including the Strait of Hormuz, which having limited direct operational or financial impact on us has acted as a meaningful demand catalyst, pushing customers towards North American supply chains and benefiting our utilization and rates in the quarter. Oeyvind will go more into this shortly. Turning to more detail on Slide 6.

We're reporting an average TCE of $33,946 for the second quarter of 2026, an all-time high, being more than $4,000 per day higher than the $29,684 in the first quarter of 2026 and over $5,000 per day higher than the $28,216 in the second quarter of last year. Utilization was above our benchmark at 90.8% compared to 90.6% in the first quarter of 2026 and 84.2% in the second quarter of last year. Voyage expenses are shown higher in the second quarter of 2026, which are effectively pass-through costs to our customers related to bunker fuel and other such spot voyage costs and they're reflective of the record total operating revenues that we're reporting this quarter.

Vessel operating expenses of $47.1 million for the quarter were broadly flat in absolute dollar terms, though up on the basis of dollars per vessel per day at $9,554 compared to $8,905. This is mainly driven by higher crewing and logistics costs and the timing of project-related expenses incurred in the quarter. Depreciation was down at $31.5 million compared to the second quarter of last year, reflecting our reduced fleet size following vessel sales and the sale of the Navigator Pegasus in this quarter brought us the gain of $15.3 million on proceeds of $30.5 million.

EBITDA for the quarter was an all-time high of $101.6 million compared to $80.3 million in the first quarter of 2026 and $71.9 million in the second quarter of 2025. Adjusted EBITDA, also a record, was $86.4 million, up from $65 million in the first quarter of 2026 and significantly higher than the $60.1 million in the second quarter of 2025. As always, Randy will discuss more about our ethylene terminal, but throughput volumes for the second quarter were another record high of 374,278 tons with our share of the terminal results reflected in the equity method investment income line of $7.1 million for the quarter, up from $4.8 million in the second quarter of last year.

Our income tax line reflects current tax and deferred tax in relation to our equity investment in the ethylene export terminal, in line with the stronger terminal results for the quarter. Net income attributable to stockholders for the second quarter of 2026 was $53.0 million or $0.86 per share, again, the highest Navigator has ever reported, surpassing the previous record set just last quarter and well above the $21.5 million or $0.31 per share reported in the second quarter of 2025. We continue to actively use, strengthen and build our balance sheet, as shown on Slide 7.

Our cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash balance was $274 million at June 30, 2026, and this figure was $362 million at close on August 3, 2026, in particular, following the $57 million we drew from our recently closed newbuild vessel financing facility. As a precautionary measure in April 2026, when the war in Iran started, we drew down just over $91 million under our revolving credit facilities given the geopolitical uncertainty seen at that time. And whilst this, of course, has not gone away, we expect to repay those revolving facilities in the coming months based on our ongoing assessment of market conditions and as the proceeds from the sale of the Unigas vessel fleet are received.

Our healthy liquidity position at June 30, 2026, is after returning $10.6 million to shareholders across dividends and share buybacks, repaying $26.8 million of scheduled loan amortization and ahead of our agreed sale of the Unigas Pool fleet, early repaying $43 million of debt secured against certain of those vessels. We also made $20.8 million of payments towards our newbuild vessels during the quarter. Our share in the Morgan's Point ethylene export terminal remains unencumbered. We also own 14 unencumbered vessels at June 30, 2026, 8 of which are part of the Unigas fleet to be sold. And with our bond having $60 million of untapped capacity, we continue to retain significant additional liquidity for if and when needed.

Looking beyond this quarter, we paid from our own cash a total of $131.6 million at June 30, 2026, towards the 6 vessels we have under construction, of which $8.5 million represents capitalized interest under U.S. GAAP. On July 17, we drew $57.6 million, as I referred above, from our new $164 million bridge loan facility, recouping 80% of the predelivery installments paid to the shipyard to date for the first of our 2 and newbuild vessels. We continue to press forward in maintaining a balanced capital structure.

And on Slide 8, across the quarter and with a very supportive banking group and a strong underlying business, we were again able to return cash to shareholders, use funds for the construction of our newbuilds, reward shareholders through buybacks and continue managing and refreshing our debt to meet our financing needs in an efficient and cost competitive way. In respect to the first quarter of 2026, we returned 30% of net income attributable to stockholders, comprising $6.3 million of share buybacks and $4.3 million of cash dividend, representing $0.07 per share. And in respect to the second quarter of 2026, our Board yesterday approved an increase such that we will return 35% of net income attributable to stockholders.

This will comprise $4.3 million of cash dividends, representing $0.07 per share, and we expect the balance will comprise around $14.2 million of share repurchases to take place between now and September 30, 2026. Given the company's strong cash position for the third quarter ending September 30, 2026, yesterday, our Board also approved an increase in the fixed element of the company's capital return policy to $0.08 per share of the company's common stock, while maintaining that the fixed element and the variable element together should equal 35% of net income attributable to stockholders of the company.

Just note that the declaration of any dividends and the amount of any such dividends, including with respect to the third quarter, do remain subject to approval by the company's Board of Directors following the conclusion of each quarter as normal. We continue to be busy with vessel financings, and we've now closed 3 transactions relating to our 6 newbuild vessels. In addition to the March 2026 facility we previously announced that finances 2 of those vessels, on June 18, 2026, we secured predelivery bridge finance for our first 2 Panda ethylene newbuild vessels, and we drew the $57.6 million of that on July 17, as I mentioned earlier.

But at the same time, we obtained committed $205.8 million JOLCO financing to refinance this bridge facility on delivery of the vessels and provide long-term post-delivery financing on very competitive terms. Then very recently, only last week on July 31, we signed a new secured term loan facility for up to $121.8 million to finance approximately 70% of the cost of our 2 Coral ammonia newbuild vessels, executed at our lowest ever margin, 135 basis points plus SOFR. The facility is available to draw on delivery of the vessels around May and September 2028, respectively. And as always, we'd like to thank our banking group for their continued support.

Net debt to last 12 months adjusted EBITDA fell to 2.2x at June 30, 2026, down from 2.5x at March 31, 2026. And we have only relatively small near and midterm balloons as we work to ensure our debt profile is pushed to the right. Net debt was $653 million, and our loan-to-fleet value ratio remains approximately 31% or below 30% when you include a reasonable value for our Morgan's Point terminal investment and 55% of the company's debt was either hedged or on a fixed interest rate basis at the quarter end, consistent with the prior quarter.

We'll continue to prioritize returning capital to shareholders while maintaining balance sheet strength, lowering the cost of our debt where we can and balancing growth, deleveraging and shareholder returns, all in a disciplined, deliberate and careful manner. On Slide 9, this again highlights 2 of the core strengths of our Navigator platform, our ability to generate consistent operating cash flow and our structurally lower all-in cash breakeven when isolating for the change in ownership days. Starting with cash flow over the last 12 months to June 30, 2026, the business continued to generate strong underlying operating cash flow with a pre-CapEx cash flow yield averaging around 17%. Post-CapEx free cash flow continues to reflect investment in our newbuild program.

Our latest estimate for 2026, all-in cash breakeven is $21,990 per vessel per day, up from $21,230 last quarter. The increase versus last quarter's estimate principally reflects our agreed sale of the 8 Unigas pool vessels, which reduces the average fleet size across which costs are spread. Notwithstanding, our headroom over our TCE revenue remains substantial, even adjusting out the exceptional rate levels we've seen in this quarter. Our cash breakeven figure incorporates over $175 million of operating costs, $114 million of debt amortization and approximately $44 million of net interest expense.

Expense guidance for 2026 is materially unchanged from the guidance provided in our first quarter earnings results presentation when accounting for the change in ownership days, noting that in particular, OpEx and depreciation have reduced accordingly with the upcoming sale of the 8 Unigas vessels. Slide 10 outlines our historic quarterly adjusted EBITDA, adding the second quarter's results. We now have 14 quarters in a row since the beginning of 2023, where we've reported at least $60 million of quarterly adjusted EBITDA and with an average of $72 million per quarter over that period. We've also added for reference some historic data points to this slide showing our share of the terminals adjusted EBITDA.

Then as we've highlighted previously, our earnings remain sensitive to TCE movements, and we estimate approximately $17 million of annual additional EBITDA uplift or $0.28 per share of annual EPS uplift for every $1,000 increase in TCE rates, all other things being equal. Then as for previous quarters, an update on our vessel dry dock schedule, projected costs and time taken can be found in the appendix should that detail be of interest to anybody. And finally, looking ahead, after an exceptionally strong second quarter, we do expect TCE and utilization to moderate in the third quarter, also consistent with normal seasonal patterns. Even so, we expect the business to remain cash generative.

And despite the geopolitical uncertainty and market constraints that remain, Navigator is in an excellent financial position, and it gives us the confidence and the flexibility to move forward and pursue opportunities as they arise. With that, I'll hand over to Oeyvind to provide the latest commercial update. Oeyvind?

Oeyvind Lindeman: Thank you, Gary. Good morning, everyone. I'll spend the next few minutes on the Strait of Hormuz and what is doing to maritime trade lanes, then the ethylene story, our utilization, and I'll wrap up with a quick view on vessel supply and rates. So let's start with the big one, which continues to be the Strait of Hormuz on Page 12. The strait continues to disrupt global shipping lanes and is creating inefficiencies across pretty much every ship segment. Today, only around 20% of the vessels that would normally transit to Hormuz are actually doing so.

The rest are either finding employment elsewhere or they're sitting in the Indian Ocean waiting for a green light to resume Middle East holdings. And where do the cargoes come from instead? It's North America. It's really the only region with enough capacity to substitute the lost Middle East supply. So we're seeing a meaningful number of vessels heading toward the Panama Canal. And because Panama comes with its own headaches, transit uncertainty and auction fees that can run into millions of dollars for one-way passage, many ships are going the long way around instead via the Cape of Good Hope. Either way, it's more days at sea. In shipping terms, that is called inefficiency.

And inefficiency, at least in the short term, works in our favor. You simply need more ships to move the same amount of cargo from A to B, and that's positive for the supply and demand balance. We're seeing this play out in LPG, in ethane and in ethylene. And of the 3, ethylene is where the impact on our shipping demand has been the biggest. So let's turn to Page 13. Since the Strait close to commercial shipping on the 28th of February, ethylene exports out of the U.S. have been climbing. You can see it on the right-hand graph on March, April and May were particularly strong. Most of that volume went transatlantic to Europe. And why?

Because the arbitrage between U.S. and European pricing was at its widest. You can see this on the left-hand graph with the light blue line sitting above the others, meaning an exporter of U.S. ethylene could on paper make the biggest netback selling to European buyers. That picture has shifted over the past couple of months. Both graphs show it. The arbitrage is now widest to Asia, the dark blue line versus the gray line, and that's pulling ethylene across the Pacific. From where we sit, that's good news, longer voyages, more ton miles for the Handysize ethylene segment. And ethane pricing, which underpins U.S. competitiveness for both ethane and ethylene has stayed remarkably flat through all the volatility.

Ethane is really the rock in all of this. This is key when thinking about long-term fundamentals. These exports drove our utilization higher, and you can see that on Page 14. We averaged 90.8% for the quarter, well above the same quarter last year. This is illustrated by the green dotted line on the left-hand graph. Now towards the end of the quarter, uncertainty crept in, the geopolitics, the Strait itself, the U.S. Iran memorandum of understanding on ceasefire, conflicting messages became the norm, like a traffic light flipping from green to orange to red and back again for the straight transits. That clearly resulted in less activity. Many market participants simply went into wait-and-see mode.

That said, ethylene seems to have found a floor when looking at the dotted dark blue line on the right-hand graph. Volumes have come off the record highs of May, yes, but recent exports are still running above historical average for this time of the year, and that is good to see. Moving to fleet supply on Page 15. The order book across the gas segments is largely unchanged from last quarter, which is also applicable for our Handysize segment. As Mads mentioned in his opening remarks, we have a low order book, both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of the operating fleet of 125 vessels. We believe this is very much manageable going forward.

One thing to note, our 8 smaller ships, the dark blue box at the bottom middle of the chart will drop out of the picture by next quarter's call meeting as they are part of the Unigas transaction we just announced and which was commented on. And finally, market rates on Page 16. It shows the updated Clarksons 12-month time charter assessment. Rates rose during the second quarter on the surge in demand across all vessel classes, including Handysize. The assessment has since come back to pre-Hormuz levels. But let's remember, those pre- Hormuz levels were quite robust to begin with. And as always, spot rates can run above the 12-month assessment that aren't necessarily captured by this index.

So to wrap it up, global trade disruption is generally positive for shipping, and we've seen that firsthand, particularly in ethylene exports on seagoing demand for our vessels. These inefficiencies, Panama being a good example, won't disappear anytime soon. What's holding back the record 2Q volumes from carrying Strait into third quarter is uncertainty. Market participants are hesitant to commit beyond critical keep their lights on deals and are shying away from longer-term transactions. But the market itself remains robust at levels similar to before almost happen. With that, over to Randy. Randy, what do you got to share?

Randall Giveans: Thank you, Or. I have plenty to share. So as Mads mentioned earlier, there have been several recent developments that we want to provide some additional details and updates on. So starting on Slide 18. During the second quarter, we paid a $0.07 quarterly cash dividend that totaled $4.3 million, and we repurchased over 270,000 common shares of NVGS in the open market, which totaled $6.3 million at an average price of around $23.19 per share. As we announced in May, our capital return policy currently now includes a fixed quarterly cash dividend of $0.07 per share as part of our quarterly payout percentage of 35% of net income.

So as a result, we are returning a total of $18.5 million to shareholders during this third quarter. The Board has declared a cash dividend of $0.07 per share payable on September 1 to all shareholders of record as of August 19. That equates to another quarterly cash dividend payment of $4.3 million. Additionally, with our shares trading well below NAV of more than $30 a share, we use the variable portion to return capital via share buybacks. As such, we plan to repurchase $14.2 million of our shares between now and quarter end so that the dividend and the share repurchases together equal 35% of net income or $18.5 million for the quarter. But wait, there's more.

So starting next quarter, the Board approved an increase of the fixed quarterly cash dividend amount to $0.08 per share. So that's a 14% dividend increase. With a strong balance sheet and consistent earnings, we hope to steadily improve our capital return policy going forward. Now turning to Slide 19. Throughout the years, we've been saying how attractively value our shares are, and we continue to put our money where our mouth has been. So since December 2022 and including our recently declared return of capital to be distributed here in the third quarter, we will have soon returned over $300 million to shareholders, including $50 million in cash dividends and $256 million of share buybacks.

So for a quick recap, as you can see on that bottom left chart, we had about 56 million shares outstanding for many years up until the merger with Ultragas, which happened almost exactly 5 years ago. We issued 21 million shares in exchange for 18 vessels. Now since peaking at that 77 million share number in late '21, we have repurchased 16 million shares at an average price of roughly $16 per share. So our total return of capital equates to around $4.40 per share based on the average share count of about 70 million shares during the time, so a 28% return.

As seen over the last few years, we want to reiterate that returning capital to shareholders will remain a priority for us going forward. Now looking at our ethylene export terminal on Slide 20. As previously guided, ethylene throughput volumes increased to a record high of 374,000 tons during the second quarter, and that's despite an increase in domestic ethylene prices, where multiple European crackers underwent turnarounds. Furthermore, both the European and Asian demand for U.S. ethylene also increased, and that's due to the recent surge in oil-based naphtha prices. The wide arbitrage driven by much higher international ethylene prices during the second quarter led to numerous spot customers buying cargoes from the terminal at fairly robust rates.

Now importantly, we've also signed 4 new offtake contracts this year with the most recent contract commencing in June. Looking ahead to the third quarter, throughput has decreased this summer due to falling naphtha prices, global inventory destocking and the recent restarts of multiple European crackers. Also, summers are hot here in Houston, so that slightly impacts the terminal's operations. However, volume should increase in the coming months, along with the widening of the arbitrage and inventory restocking.

Additionally, discussions are ongoing with multiple customers for take-or-pay contracts commencing here in the coming months, though oil price volatility and the geopolitical uncertainties are likely to persist in the near term, thus impacting the exact timing and scale of those new offtake contracts. Now looking at our fleet on Slide 21. We continue to rightsize our fleet by selling our older, smaller vessels and those noncore assets. So in April, we sold the Navigator Pegasus, a 2009-built 22,000 cubic meter semi-ref gas carrier to a third party for $30.5 million, netting a gain of $15.3 million.

Now this was the ninth vessel we've sold since 2022, and all of those have an average age of 22 years at the time of sale. To note, each of the vessel sales resulted in a pretty good book gain. Now on the other hand, during that same time frame, we have purchased 8 modern secondhand ethylene carriers, and those have been an average age of 8 years at the time of purchase. So we haven't only been selling vessels. Now most recently, we signed definitive agreements to sell our 8 Unigas vessels for $183 million.

So after repaying a total of $54 million of associated debt, of which around $18 million was outstanding at the end of June, the net cash proceeds will be around $129 million. Now these 8 vessel sales result in a book gain of about $65 million to $70 million, so it's more than $1 per share, which we will book upon vessel deliveries here in the coming months, most of which in the third quarter, maybe some that slip into October. So looking at all of our 17 vessel sales in the last 4 years, including the Unigas vessels, total proceeds expected to be a total of $342 million.

And after all the debt repaid total net cash proceeds of $288 million. Now our current fleet consists of 54 vessels with an average fleet age of just over 12.5 years and an average size of just over 21,000 cubic meters. Now excluding the Unigas vessels, our fleet would be slightly younger with an average age of below 12.5 years and slightly larger with an average cubic meters of around 23,000. Lastly, we continue to upgrade our vessels with some energy savings technologies. More details are on Slide 28, and we'll continue to roll out some new artificial intelligence and AI programs to make our fleet even more efficient. Now finishing on Slide 22.

I want to personally invite you, all of you, to our upcoming 2026 Analyst Investor Day here in Houston, Texas in a few months from now. So on Tuesday afternoon, November 17, we'll be hosting our Morgan's Point tours of the ethylene export terminal and one of our vessels. So just take a look at the picture to the right and imagine yourself climbing on board that beautiful gas carrier and seeing the Flex chain chilling ethylene down to negative 104 degrees Celsius. It's a thing of beauty. Later that evening, the management team and members of our Board of Directors will host a dinner for our analysts and investors.

Now on Wednesday morning, November 18, we'll host company and industry presentations covering the current market trends, a financial update as well as our medium-term strategy. We'll then have lunch followed by an appreciation event for analysts, shareholders, customers and partners. So I'll personally guarantee that the weather will be much cooler than it is today in Houston. With that, I'll now turn it back over to Mads for some closing remarks.

Mads Zacho: Thank you a lot, Randy. I'll certainly be there. Q2 2026 was a quarter where everything came together, record net income, record EBITDA, record TCE rates, record terminal throughput, all in the same quarter. And that, of course, doesn't happen by accident. It reflects the strength of the platform that we have built over the years. The numbers speak for themselves, but I want to just take a moment to point to what's all underneath them. Our cash breakeven sits below $22,000 per day. Leverage has come down to 2.2x and financing is now in place for all 6 newbuilds.

And the Unigas sale proceeds are still to come, and that will certainly give us significant financial flexibility going into the second half. Q3 may become slightly softer commercially, but expected to remain healthy. TCE and utilization may normalize from record levels. Terminal volumes will ease as the ethylene arbitrage tightens and the European crackers restart. But the structural story has not changed. U.S. ethane remains the lowest cost feedstock in the world. The Handysize order book is thin and the growing share of the existing fleet that's getting too old to remain competitive is right ahead of us.

We enter Q3 from a position of real strength, a clean balance sheet, a clear capital return policy now at 35% of net income and a fleet that's getting younger and more efficient with every newbuild delivered and every older vessel being sold. So thanks a lot for listening. And now back to you, Randy.

Randall Giveans: Thank you, Mat. Operator, we'll now open the lines for some Q&A. [Operator Instructions]

Omar Nokta: This is Omar from Clarksons Securities. I have a couple of questions. I was just jumping back and forth with another call, so I may have missed this in the commentary. But I just wanted to ask about the balance sheet and the drawdown of the $91 million from your revolvers back in April. Early during the Hormuz crisis, it sounded like as a precautionary measure. You're fully drawn as of the end of the quarter. Are you still fully drawn as of now? And what are your plans near term with that cash? Do you repay it, invest it or just simply keep it on the balance sheet?

Gary Chapman: Yes. Omar, yes, we did cover that in there, but I can cover it again real quick. We did draw it down. It is still fully drawn. And our plan is to obviously take a look at the situation, but particularly with the proceeds coming in from our Unigas fleet sale. Our plan is to likely repay those revolvers over the course of the next couple of months.

Omar Nokta: Okay. All right. That's clear. And then just in terms of the -- as we think about things from here, you had your strongest quarter ever in terms of, as you mentioned, revenue and rate and earnings and so on. You got nearly $34,000 a day on the Handysize as an average rate. How do we think about that trending for the third quarter? Arbs have narrowed a bit from the very high levels that we saw back in the second quarter. They're still elevated. You do expect a bit lower terminal throughput, but we're still seeing headline rates remain elevated. How do you think about that as we think about earnings power from here?

Is it the utilization that maybe comes off, but the rate itself can hold at this latest level? Or do we see them kind of reverting back to the averages you captured back in the first quarter?

Oeyvind Lindeman: There's a relationship between utilization and rates and our priority is to obviously try to push both as high as we can. I think the graph from the 12-month time charter assessment issued by Clarksons shows this bump in assessment during the last 3 quarters and it come down to pre-Hormuz level as we commented on, which is pretty strong still. So we expect -- yes, it's slightly softer than the second quarter, but it's still quite robust going into the third quarter as well.

Spiro Dounis: You got Spiro here from Citi. Maybe starting off, I want to talk about next strategic steps here. You've secured financing for all your new builds. I believe you contracted most of Morgan's Point at this point, maybe a little bit left. You're reaching what looks like maybe the tail end of the fleet renewal process for now anyway. So a lot of major items checked off that list. But something tells me you're not going to be sitting on your hands, especially with all this liquidity. So how should we think about next steps for you? What's on the checklist now? And maybe how to think about the timing when you start to move there?

Mads Zacho: Yes. I think, by and large, nothing has really changed in terms of our strategy. We are looking for opportunities to consolidate the segments where we are strong. That goes for the Handysize segment, that goes for the MGC segment. So we'll be looking for opportunities here to add to our feet if we find modern tonnage at attractive prices. This is certainly -- I think those commercial synergies or the underlying case, you could say, for doing so is very healthy right now, and we'll continue to look around for those.

It has been a little bit harder, you could say, given the uncertainty that we are seeing geopolitically right now, which means that the bid-ask spreads, they may have widened a bit when spot rates have been elevated the way they have. I mean, that does raise expectations. But we also see that there is a big order book on the VLGCs and the MGCs. So let's see over the next coming quarters, and we are patient people, but over the next couple of quarters and into '27, '28, what opportunities will be coming. We enjoy having the financial and strategic flexibility to go and do those transactions when they make sense.

But I mean, all that goes, of course, together with the capital return policy that we have been gradually increasing our return to shareholders and our plan is to continue to do that in a very measured and predictable manner.

Spiro Dounis: Great color, Mads. Second question, maybe just switching gears a bit here to the customer mindset. You talked about customers being apprehensive to contract given all the uncertainty. But maybe just put a finer point on when the dust settles, how you're thinking about the long-term impacts from this conflict and how that impacts Navigator? Do you see customers signing up for term? Are you seeing new names show up on your customer list? And I guess, ultimately, what sort of signals do you think customers are waiting for to really start contracting again?

Oeyvind Lindeman: It's good question, Spiro. As Randy mentioned, there's new terminal contract offtake agreements signed post Hormuz. So clearly, the signaling, I think, of what we're hearing from customers that definitely, reliability on your supply chain for the molecules that you need becomes top priority. So it's not only about price and shortest distance from the producer. So the Hormuz has really put that front and center. And reliability is definitely placed along the U.S. Gulf Coast and East Coast in terms of these molecules, so be that LPG, be it ethane or be it ethylene. So I think more interest is coming there.

It's obviously quite difficult to commit to a longer-term contract with everything that is happening, but the underlying sentiment is being pushed towards the United States of America, and we will benefit from that.

Unknown Analyst: This is [indiscernible]. Just maybe following up on Spiro's questions here, looking at the terminal performance, can you talk about how we should think about the fixed versus more variable or spot exposed portion of the EBITDA for the quarter here?

Randall Giveans: Specifically at the terminal level?

Unknown Analyst: Yes, Randy.

Randall Giveans: Yes, that's a good question. So we haven't gone into the exact details. The majority of the capacity has been sold on take-or-pay contracts, but also the spot rates were above the rates that we charge on the kind of time charter or the offtake contract level. So the volume that was spot is lower than that of contracted. But when you bake in the rates at higher levels, it was a pretty even mix there.

Unknown Analyst: Randy, just to follow up on that. You talked a little bit about warmer weather and seasonality here. How should we be thinking about, I guess, an annualized run rate on the terminal, just taking into account some of that weather pattern and/or regular maintenance or downtimes?

Randall Giveans: Yes. So the full year, the terminal can do around 1.55 million tons. In the colder months, you can get a little bit above nameplate capacity. In the warmer months, you're pretty much right at it, maybe slightly under it, especially here in July and you live in Houston, you know August. So on a full year basis, though, we're still getting to the 1.55. That's around 130 or so thousand tons per month. There is some variability there. Obviously, you saw with the Flex Train, we were able to do 150,000, 160,000 tons a couple of months, March, April, May specifically.

So there is going to be a little bit of operational impact from the temperatures, but it's more commercial driven, right? And then within the Allstate contracts, if an offtaker, let's just use the round number, has 100,000 tons or 120,000 tons per year, that doesn't mean they have to do 10,000 tons per month, right? So every quarter, there's some minimums and maximums. So they may have pulled some in to second quarter, maybe not taking as much in the third quarter, likely taking more in the fourth quarter depending on the widening of the arbitrage. So there's a lot of factors at play in terms of kind of forward run rate from these levels.

Unknown Analyst: Got it. All right. So my second question just relates to some comments that Oeyvind made during marine money this year. So just taking a step back, looking at the general environment, we're in a spot right now where it looks like natural gas prices are elevated and pretty volatile, which generally doesn't play very well to certain price-sensitive buyers or markets, especially in the emerging markets. Do you think Navigator has a role to play here in terms of additional infrastructure projects that could deliver alternative fuel gases other than methane to the market?

Oeyvind Lindeman: Definitely, we have the wherewithal, the balance sheet, the knowledge and the floating assets and partners. We had the example with enterprise product partners to put in infrastructure to create a supply for the customers that want it. So I think we have all the pieces together. I think the environment as to the previous question, whereby perhaps Asian consumers are looking at perhaps putting in ethylene storage or ethane storage for their businesses as an alternative for naphtha coming from the Strait of Hormuz. So I think we have the assets and the knowledge to do it. So the biggest challenge is, of course, to land those things, but it's definitely something we are trying to develop.

Climent Molins: This is Climent Molins from Value Investor's Edge. I wanted to ask about Azane Fuel Solutions. Could you talk a bit about the total CapEx for the project as well as how much of that would be attributable to you net of the grant? How does the guidance for this CapEx look like if the project goes forward?

Oeyvind Lindeman: It's very straightforward, Climent. The Norwegian government have awarded Azane Fuel solutions NOK 442 million, which, let's call it, $45 million. And that to cover 80% of the CapEx for the 3 terminals that they intend to construct on the West Coast of Norway. So most fantastic large piece of the CapEx is a grant, with no strings attached, which is, I think, answers your question.

Climent Molins: Yes. That's helpful. And you've already touched on capital allocation, but I wanted to delve a bit deeper on your plans to allocate the proceeds from the sale of the Unigas vessels. Part of it of the gains will be used to repurchase shares, but could that be complemented with, let's say, incremental repurchases or should we expect most of that to be kept on the balance sheet in anticipation of other opportunities?

Mads Zacho: I mean an important capital return will take place once the sale has been completed because as we mentioned, there's a potential net gain of $65 million to $70 million and with a 35% return on capital return policy, there's going to be a significant contribution coming from that. As to the remainder of it, we haven't earmarked those funds for now. As I mentioned before, we are looking at various opportunities, and it's still this consolidation gain that is central to our strategy and then also the infrastructure projects that we are working on. So there will be some growth element to it.

But it's not going to be something that we will tick like a clockwork over the next couple of quarters. It will be -- it could be lumpy, and it may take some patience. We are very patient investors.

Randall Giveans: Thank you, Climent. That completes our Q&A. Mads, over to you.

Mads Zacho: Yes. No, I just want to say thanks a lot for listening. It was a fantastic quarter. Thank a lot for all the great questions from the analysts and do reach out if you need any further discussion from me, from Randy. We always appreciate your engagement. So all the best, and have a fantastic day.