Small tanker idea - Pyxis

This name Pyxis Tankers (PXS) came across my radar the last couple of days. Interestingly, the company seems to have been publicly trading for around 5 years, and this week was the first time I noticed them.
Pyxis Tankers had 5 MR2 tankers at the end of 2022. But, they recently sold their oldest tanker and are left with 4 MR2 tankers.

Home | Pyxis Tankers Inc.

1 Like

Thanks for the lead. I visited the site but did not spend any significant time reviewing docs. However, one thing I noticed is this part of the 4th quarter report:
“Management fees: For the three months ended December 31, 2022, management fees charged from our ship manager, Pyxis Maritime Corp. (“Maritime”), an entity affiliated with our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Valentis, and to International Tanker Management Ltd. (“ITM”), our fleet’s technical manager, . . .”
That seems to be some built-in conflict of interest or is this common?

JimA

@ JimA759s - Those types of arrangements where one or two managers, or affiliates of management, earn fees are very, very common among shipping companies. Yes, mostly among Greek-led entities. But, also the Scandanavian entities e.g. GOGL, NAT, FRO, SFL, etc.

Thanks Hohum.

Pyxis does not seem to be issuing dividends so I’m passing for now.

JimA

@JimA759s - find it odd you would be looking for a dividend on the common shares of PXS. Pyxis Tankers does have a preferred share issue (PXSAP) that does pay a dividend.

Why odd? I get dividends from GOGL and SBLK. I don’t do preferreds. The first thing I look at in my investing is if there are dividends - I’m old.

@JimA759s - I say “odd you would be looking for a dividend with PXS” because of the company size. Yes, the second half of 2022 and 2023 YTD have been great for the tanker sector. And yes, Pyxis has sold a tanker for net proceeds. But, my takeaway is that Pyxis is still looking to grow, and would thus spend their cash on expansion. Regarding GOGL and SBLK - those are much larger and mature shipping entities (I am still adjusting my div expectations for both companies in H1 2023)

Oh - of course I did not know that until I looked at the company and that was my general impression as well. I’m new to the shipping business. I wish them well with their eco-friendly tankers and maybe in a few years I’ll take another look.