6-K 1 d8794784_6-k.htm
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
 
FORM 6-K
 
REPORT OF FOREIGN PRIVATE ISSUER
PURSUANT TO RULE 13a-16 OR 15d-16
UNDER THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
 
For the month of February 2021
 
Commission File Number: 001-33869
 
STAR BULK CARRIERS CORP.
(Translation of registrant’s name into English)
 
Star Bulk Carriers Corp.
c/o Star Bulk Management Inc.
40 Agiou Konstantinou Street,
15124 Maroussi,
Athens, Greece
(Address of principal executive offices)
 
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant files or will file annual reports under cover of Form 20-F or Form 40-F.
 
Form 20-F  Form 40-F 
 
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K in paper as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(1): 
 
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K in paper as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(7):  
 



INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS FORM 6-K REPORT
 
On November 16, 2020, Star Bulk Carriers Corp. (the "Company") issued a press release (the "Press Release") announcing its unaudited financial and operating results for the third quarter and the nine months ended September 30, 2020. A copy of the Press Release is attached hereto as Exhibit 99.1.

 



CAUTIONARY STATEMENT CONCERNING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION
 
This Form 6-K, and the documents to which the Company refers in this Form 6-K, as well as information included in oral statements or other written statements made or to be made by the Company, contain “forward-looking statements,” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and Section 21E of the Exchange Act, with respect to our financial condition, results of operations and business and our expectations or beliefs concerning future events. Words such as, but not limited to, “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “intend,” “plan,” “targets,” “projects,” “likely,” “would,” “could” and similar expressions or phrases may identify forward-looking statements.

All forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. The occurrence of the events described, and the achievement of the expected results, depend on many events, some or all of which are not predictable or within our control. Actual results may differ materially from expected results.

In addition, important factors that, in our view, could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements include:

general dry bulk shipping market conditions, including fluctuations in charter rates and vessel values;
the strength of world economies;
the stability of Europe and the Euro;
fluctuations in interest rates and foreign exchange rates;
changes in demand in the dry bulk shipping industry, including the market for our vessels;
changes in our operating expenses, including bunker prices, dry docking and insurance costs;
changes in governmental rules and regulations or actions taken by regulatory authorities;
potential liability from pending or future litigation;
general domestic and international political conditions;
potential disruption of shipping routes due to accidents or political events;
business disruptions due to natural disasters or other disasters outside our control, such as the recent outbreak of COVID-19;
the availability of financing and refinancing;
our ability to meet requirements for additional capital and financing to grow our business;
the impact of our indebtedness and the compliance with the covenants included in our debt agreements;
vessel breakdowns and instances of off-hire;
potential exposure or loss from investment in derivative instruments;
potential conflicts of interest involving our Chief Executive Officer, his family and other members of our senior management;
our ability to complete acquisition transactions as and when planned; and
the risk factors and other factors referred to in the Company’s reports filed with or furnished to the SEC.



Consequently, all of the forward-looking statements we make in this document are qualified by the information contained or referred to herein, including, but not limited to, (i) the information contained under this heading and (ii) the information disclosed in the Company’s annual report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended 2019, filed with the SEC on March 27, 2020, as amended on April 2, 2020.
 
You should carefully consider the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section in connection with any subsequent written or oral forward-looking statements that may be issued by us or persons acting on our behalf. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements.

RISK FACTORS
 
Our significant business risks are described in Item 3.d. in our Annual Report on Form 20F, as filed with the SEC on March 27, 2020, as amended on April 2, 2020. You should be aware that these risk factors and other information may not describe every risk facing the Company. In addition to the risks disclosed in that filing, following are additional updates to our risk factor disclosures with respect to our business.
 
The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the dry bulk shipping industry and could have a material adverse impact on our business and operations.
Since the beginning of the calendar year 2020, the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in the implementation of numerous actions by governments and governmental agencies in an attempt to mitigate the spread of the virus, including travel bans, quarantines, and other emergency public health measures, and a number of countries implemented lockdown measures. Depending on the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, such measures could be newly imposed or reimposed in certain countries. These measures have resulted in a significant reduction in global economic activity and extreme volatility in the global financial markets. If the Covid-19 pandemic continues on a prolonged basis or becomes more severe, the adverse impact on the global economy and the rate environment for dry bulk and other cargo vessels may deteriorate further and our operations and cash flows may be negatively impacted. Relatively weak global economic conditions during periods of volatility have and may continue to have a number of adverse consequences for dry bulk and other shipping sectors, including, among other things:

low charter rates, particularly for vessels employed on short-term time charters or in the spot market;
decreases in the market value of dry bulk vessels and limited second-hand market for the sale of vessels;
limited financing for vessels;
loan covenant defaults; and
declaration of bankruptcy by certain vessel operators, vessel owners, shipyards and charterers.
The Covid-19 pandemic and measures to contain its spread have negatively impacted regional and global economies and trade patterns in markets in which we operate, the way we operate our business, and the businesses of our charterers and suppliers. These negative impacts could continue or worsen, even after the pandemic itself diminishes or ends. Companies, including us, have also taken precautions, such as requiring employees to work remotely and imposing travel restrictions, while some other businesses have been required to close entirely.
Moreover, we face significant risks to our personnel and operations due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Our crews face risk of exposure to Covid-19 as a result of travel to ports in which cases of Covid-19 have been reported. Our shore-based personnel likewise face risk of such exposure, as we maintain offices in areas that have been impacted by the spread of Covid-19.
 Measures against Covid-19 in a number of countries have restricted crew rotations on our vessels, which may continue or become more severe. As a result, in 2020, we have experienced and may continue to experience disruptions to our normal vessel operations caused by increased deviation time associated with positioning our vessels to countries in which we can undertake a crew rotation in compliance with such measures. Delays in crew rotations have led to issues with crew fatigue and may continue to do so, which may result in delays or other operational issues. We have had and expect to continue to have increased expenses due to incremental fuel consumption and days in which our vessels are unable to earn revenue in order to deviate to certain ports on which we would ordinarily not call during a typical voyage. We may also incur additional expenses associated with testing, personal protective equipment, quarantines, and travel expenses such as airfare costs in order to perform crew rotations in the current environment. In 2020, delays in crew rotations have also caused us to incur additional costs related to crew bonuses paid to retain the existing crew members on board and may continue to do so.




Finally, Covid-19 and measures against it have led to a highly difficult environment in which to dispose of vessels given difficulty to physically inspect vessels.
In addition, organizations across industries, including ours, are rightly focusing on their employees’ well-being, whilst making sure that their operations continue undisrupted and at the same time, adapting to the new ways of operating. As such employees are encouraged or even required to operate remotely which significantly increases the risk of cyber security attacks.
There continues to be a high level of uncertainty relating to how the pandemic will evolve, including the availability of vaccines and their global deployment, the development of effective treatments, the imposition of effective public safety and other protective measures and the public’s and government’s responses to such measures.. The continuation of the Covid-19 pandemic, the development of mutations or new strains of the Covid-19 virus and one or more of the events described above could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.
 We rely on our information systems to conduct our business, and failure to protect these systems against security breaches could adversely affect our business and results of operations, including on our vessels. Additionally, if these systems fail or become unavailable for any significant period of time, our business could be harmed.
We rely on our computer systems and network infrastructure across our operations, including on our vessels. The safety and security of our vessels and efficient operation of our business, including processing, transmitting and storing electronic and financial information, are dependent on computer hardware and software systems, which are increasingly vulnerable to security breaches and other disruptions. Any significant interruption or failure of our information systems or any significant breach of security could adversely affect our business and results of operations.
Our vessels rely on information systems for a significant part of their operations, including navigation, provision of services, propulsion, machinery management, power control, communications and cargo management. We have in place safety and security measures on our vessels and onshore operations to secure our vessels against cyber-security attacks and any disruption to their information systems. However, these measures and technology may not adequately prevent security breaches despite our continuous efforts to upgrade and address the latest known threats. A disruption to the information system of any of our vessels could lead to, among other things, wrong routing, collision, grounding and propulsion failure.
Beyond our vessels, we rely on industry accepted security measures and technology to securely maintain confidential and proprietary information maintained on our information systems. However, these measures and technology may not adequately prevent security breaches. The technology and other controls and processes designed to secure our confidential and proprietary information, detect and remedy any unauthorized access to that information were designed to obtain reasonable, but not absolute, assurance that such information is secure and that any unauthorized access is identified and addressed appropriately. Such controls may in the future fail to prevent or detect, unauthorized access to our confidential and proprietary information. In addition, the foregoing events could result in violations of applicable privacy and other laws. If confidential information is inappropriately accessed and used by a third party or an employee for illegal purposes, we may be responsible to the affected individuals for any losses they may have incurred as a result of misappropriation. In such an instance, we may also be subject to regulatory action, investigation or liable to a governmental authority for fines or penalties associated with a lapse in the integrity and security of our information systems.
Our operations, including our vessels, and business administration could be targeted by individuals or groups seeking to sabotage or disrupt such systems and networks, or to steal data, and these systems may be damaged, shutdown or cease to function properly (whether by planned upgrades, force majeure, telecommunications failures, hardware or software break-ins or viruses, other cyber-security incidents or otherwise). For example, the information systems of our vessels may be subject to threats from hostile cyber or physical attacks, phishing attacks, human errors of omission or commission, structural failures of resources we control, including hardware and software, and accidents and other failures beyond our control. The threats to our information systems are constantly evolving, and have become increasingly complex and sophisticated. Furthermore, such threats change frequently and are often not recognized or detected until after they have been launched, and therefore, we may be unable to anticipate these threats and may not become aware in a timely manner of such a security breach, which could exacerbate any damage we experience.
We may be required to expend significant capital and other resources to protect against and remedy any potential or existing security breaches and their consequences. A cyber-attack could result in significant expenses to investigate and repair security breaches or system damages and could lead to litigation, fines, other remedial action, heightened regulatory scrutiny and diminished customer confidence. In addition, our remediation efforts may not be successful and we may not have adequate insurance to cover these losses.
The unavailability of the information systems or the failure of these systems to perform as anticipated for any reason could disrupt our business and could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

 


SIGNATURE
 
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
 
Dated: February 5, 2021
 
 
COMPANY NAME
 
 
 
 
 
By:
/s/ Simos Spyrou
 
 
Name:
Simos Spyrou
 
 
Title:
Co-Chief Financial Officer
 
 
 
 





Exhibit
Number
 
Description
 
 
 
 
Press Release dated November 16, 2020