Bulker owner Belships has revealed how much it will collect for its stake in the Asia arm of Lighthouse Navigation, which it sold last week.
The details emerged as the supramax and ultramax owner filed accounts for a profitable first quarter.
The company said it will receive $14m over the next 15 months in return for its 50.1% stake in Singapore-based Lighthouse Navigation Pte, which handles business from its offices in Bangkok and Melbourne.
As TradeWinds reported last week, the stake was bought by Lighthouse Navigation’s leading employees, who already owned 49.9%. The entity will be renamed Lighthouse Asia.
At the same time, Belships raised its interest in Oslo-based Lighthouse Navigation Management from 50% to 67%. The rest is owned by key employees.
Belships reported a net profit before tax of $15.7m for the quarter, down from $27.8m a year ago.
“The lower net result is primarily caused by a lower Ebitda contribution from Lighthouse Navigation,” the shipowner said in its quarterly report.
The operating platform contributed $4.7m to Belships’ total $31.3m Ebitda. Lighthouse’s Atlantic-based activities have averaged $3.8m in Ebidta each quarter over the past three years.
The net result came despite a $1m year-on-year increase in net freight revenue to $112m on the back of better-than-expected freight markets during the quarter.
Belships is paying out 100% of its net earnings in dividends for the period “due to [the] solid cash position”. Its dividend policy is to pay out 50% of its adjusted net result.
The shipowner will pay NOK 0.60 ($0.05) per share, the same as in in the previous three months.
Belships’ 32 live vessels earned an average gross time charter equivalent rate of $16,731 per day, compared with $20,559 a year earlier.
The Baltic Supramax Index averaged $12,961 gross per day during the quarter, based on 58,000-dwt vessels.
The company attributed its outperformance to the premium earned by its ultramaxes, which it said typically earn 115% to 120% of the supramax index.
“The remaining outperformance is due to period time charter contracts at levels above market rates,” it added.
Around 74% of its vessel operating days in the second quarter have been fixed at a gross daily TCE rate of about $16,700.
And 43% of ship days in the next four quarters are fixed at $16,500 gross per day, compared with a daily cash breakeven of $10,900, which Belships expects to remain unchanged in 2024.
