Christoph Toepfer-led Borealis Finance made a remarkable turnaround in profit as it continues to benefit from booming boxship markets.
The Oslo-listed company reported a profit for the first quarter of the year $3.2m, turning around a loss of $963,000 in the same period last year.
Net revenue was $27m for the first quarter, compared with $23.3m last year.
Borealis had taken advantage of a container market that had gone from “strength to strength”, the company said.
That had enabled it to conclude several “highly profitable, long-term employment contracts”.
New charters
The company has locked into long-term charters on ten boxships of between 1,118 teu to 4,563 teu since the start of the second quarter.
The charters have an average minimum period of 34 months and an average rate of $25,000 per day.
Rates above $30,000 per day were secured for a trio of 3,500 teu vessels through to mid-2024.
Management said there were no signs of a slowdown in the second quarter as charter rates and values have continued to strengthen.
Borealis sold four vessels in the quarter for a total of $46.5m.
The 2,556-teu Bomar Caen (built 2004) and 2,478-teu Rossini (built 2005) for around $12m, the 2,732-teu Telemann (built 2006) fetched $7.5m, and and the 75,000-dwt bulker Brahms (built 2011) went for $14.5m.
Borealis has also produced a report to measure its environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics.
The move is designed to further identify climate risks and understand their interaction with investment decisions.
“It is clear that we must now acknowledge climate risk as an investment risk,” Toepfer wrote.
