CCEC — Q2 2026 Financial Report Analysis

Capital Clean Energy Carriers (CCEC), a Greek-managed owner of ships that carry liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), grew second-quarter 2026 revenue 8.5% to $104.9 million because it had more ships on the water. Profit slipped anyway: net income from continuing operations fell 2.2% to $29.0 million. Five new ships joined the fleet during the quarter, but they arrived late in it (three of them in June), so they added cost straight away and only a few weeks of revenue. At the same time, scheduled five-year inspections pushed up running costs on the existing fleet. Diluted earnings per share fell 5.9% to $0.48 because there were also more shares outstanding.

At a glance

• Revenue $104.9M, up 8.5%. All of the growth came from more ships: the average fleet grew from 13.0 to 15.5 vessels, a 19% increase. Revenue per vessel actually fell.
• Operating margin 50.6%, down from 55.2%. Operating margin is the share of revenue left after running and depreciating the ships, before interest. Vessel operating costs rose 32% to $20.8M, which outpaced revenue.
• $751.5M spent on ships in the first half against $109.7M of operating cash flow. The gap was funded with $837.1M of new borrowing. Total debt rose from $2.45B to $2.96B in six months, and another $1.70B of shipyard payments is still to come through early 2029.

Results

"Continuing operations" leaves out the container ships CCEC has been selling off as it turns into a gas-shipping specialist. The last of them, the Buenaventura Express, was handed to its buyer in January 2026. Including that discontinued business, Q2 net income was $28.8M, compared with $29.8M a year earlier.

For the first half, revenue rose 2.1% to $202.9M while net income from continuing operations fell 24% to $47.3M (diluted EPS $0.78 vs $1.06). That means Q1 2026 on its own earned about $18.3M on $98.0M of revenue. Q2 was a clear step up from Q1, even though it was below last year.

Why more ships didn't mean more profit

The company says the revenue increase was "mainly attributed to the increase in the average number of vessels in our fleet." The new ships were two Handy multi-gas carriers (Active in January, Amadeus on April 30), the dual-fuel medium gas carrier Aristogenis (June 4), and the LNG carriers Archimidis (June 2) and Agamemnon (June 17).

By our own calculation, revenue per vessel fell. It works out to about $74,400 per vessel per day this quarter, against about $81,800 a year ago. Two things explain most of that:

• Mix. The new gas carriers are much smaller than CCEC's 174,000-cubic-metre LNG carriers (22,000 and 45,000 cubic metres) and earn far lower day rates. The company cites one-year rates of about $32,000 a day for Handy vessels and $36,000 for medium gas carriers. Each one raises the vessel count more than it raises revenue.
• Timing. A ship delivered in mid-June counts toward the average fleet for only part of the quarter, but it still brings costs from the day it arrives. Management notes that voyage expenses rose because of "bunker expenses incurred by certain of our vessels during the period from their delivery from the yard until commencing their employment." Bunker is ship fuel, which the owner pays for until a charterer takes over.

Costs moved the other way. Vessel operating expenses (crew, maintenance, insurance) rose to $20.8M from $15.7M. The filing attributes this to "costs incurred by certain of our vessels passing their special survey this year" as well as the larger fleet. A special survey is a classification-society inspection required every five years, and CCEC's first LNG carriers from 2021 are now reaching it. The surveys cost revenue too. In the first half, the LNG carriers Adamastos and Aristarchos earned nothing while off-hire (out of service) for their surveys. Depreciation rose to $24.5M from $21.8M with the bigger fleet.

Interest expense fell slightly, to $25.3M from $26.0M, even though borrowing is much higher. The company attributes this to "the decrease in the weighted average interest rate charged on our debt," partly offset by higher average debt.

What the headline numbers hide

• Cash conversion looks strong, but it's helped by timing. First-half operating cash flow was $109.7M against $47.3M of net income. Most of the gap is normal for a shipowner: $47.2M of depreciation and $11.1M of non-cash charter amortization are expenses that don't use cash. But $24.0M of the inflow came from accrued liabilities rising, meaning bills incurred but not yet paid, compared with $4.6M in the first half of 2025. Without that, operating cash flow would have been about $86M, not $110M. Cash interest paid fell to $38.6M from $56.2M. The filing reports this "net of interest capitalized during the construction period," so part of the cost of financing the newbuilds sits on the balance sheet until each ship is delivered.
• Most of the first-half profit drop came from operations, not one-offs. Other income swung from a $3.9M gain to a $1.1M loss. Inside that line, a $13.6M derivative fair-value loss was almost exactly offset by a $13.5M currency gain on the euro bonds, which is how the hedge is meant to work. Most of the $15M decline in first-half profit came from vessel operating expenses (up $10.9M) and voyage expenses (up $5.4M). The filing ties the voyage-cost increase partly to "war risk insurance premiums" paid during the Middle East conflict.
• The year-ago comparison including discontinued operations is distorted. Total first-half net income was $50.9M against $110.5M, but the 2025 figure includes a $46.2M gain on selling container ships. This year's equivalent gain was $4.2M, on the Buenaventura Express. The continuing-operations comparison is the meaningful one.
• Shares outstanding grew, so EPS fell faster than profit. Diluted shares rose 2.9% year on year to 60.4M. That came from issuing 551,336 shares through the dividend reinvestment plan, which lets shareholders take their dividend as new shares, partly offset by buying back 99,411 shares for $2.1M. So EPS fell 5.9% while net income fell 2.2%.
• The dividend is covered, but the fleet build is funded with debt. The $0.15 quarterly dividend costs about $9M a quarter at 60.3M shares, well within operating cash flow. Only $6.4M was paid in cash in the first half because $11.5M was reinvested in new shares. The bigger issue is investment: $751.5M of ship purchases in six months. Debt rose to $2,955.1M against equity of $1,547.2M, and cash fell to $268.9M from $294.9M.
• No guidance to compare against. CCEC does not give earnings guidance. Its forward-looking figures are the contracted revenue backlog and the shipyard payment schedule, both discussed below.

Takeaway: CCEC's earnings are currently set by how fast new ships arrive, not by charter rates. The ships that came in during June should give Q3 a full quarter of revenue from a fleet of about 19 vessels. But debt has grown about $500M in six months, and $640.8M of shipyard payments fall due in Q1 2027 alone. Whether the backlog-funded growth plan holds depends on refinancing going smoothly.

Fleet, contracts and the debt load

• Contracted revenue of about $2.9B. Signed charters already lock in about $2.9B of future revenue, rising to $4.3B if charterers exercise all their extension options. The average remaining firm contract on the LNG fleet is 6.5 years. On the LPG and multi-gas fleet it is only 0.9 years, so that part of the business is much more exposed to spot markets.
• The market tailwind barely shows up yet. Management says the Strait of Hormuz closure and damage to Qatari liquefaction plants pushed LNG spot rates to an average of $90,300 a day in Q2, up from about $39,000 across 2025. Most of CCEC's LNG carriers are on long fixed charters, so this mainly helps new contracts. Examples are the 18-month index-linked charter for Alcaios I, where the rate floats with a market index, and spot trading for the newly delivered medium gas carrier Aridaios.
• Capex still to pay: $1,697.0M. That covers seven LNG carriers, four medium gas carriers, two Handy multi-gas carriers and CCEC's half of an LNG bunkering vessel joint venture with CMA CGM. The schedule is uneven: $271.6M in Q3 2026, $4.1M in Q4, then $640.8M in Q1 2027.
• Debt profile. Of the $2,955.1M total, $2,283.4M is floating rate at an average margin of 1.7% over SOFR (the benchmark US lending rate). The other $671.7M is fixed at an all-in 4.9%. New interest-rate collars on $800M bring the fixed-or-protected share to about 50%. A collar is a hedge that keeps the rate between a floor of 3.68% and a cap of 4.31%. Scheduled repayments are modest until 2030–2031, when $416.1M and $600.1M fall due.

Outlook

CCEC gives no profit guidance, so this read rests on what is already contracted. Q3 2026 should show clearly higher revenue. Archimidis, Agamemnon and Aristogenis contribute for a full quarter, Alcaios I was due from the shipyard on July 31 and Aridaios on July 23. Interest and depreciation will step up with them, though. The Archimidis and Agamemnon deliveries alone added $432M of JOLCO financing, a type of lease-backed ship loan. Things to watch:

1. Vessel operating costs per ship. If special-survey costs fade in the second half, margins should recover toward the mid-50s. If they don't, the cost pressure is structural rather than a 2026 one-off.
2. Spot and index-linked earnings from Alcaios I and Aridaios. These are the first real test of whether the Middle East supply shock adds to CCEC's results, or mostly benefits owners with more open ships.
3. Funding the Q1 2027 capex peak. That covers the $640.8M of shipyard payments and the planned $230M sale of Amore Mio I into a 51%-owned joint venture with BGN. Any delay in refinancing would test a cash balance that is now $268.9M.