SFL Corp is not ruling out selling more spot-trading bulkers if the price is right.
Chief executive Ole Hjertaker was asked on a conference call what the plan is for the five supramaxes built between 2009 and 2012 without charters.
“In our shop, anything is for sale at the right price, if we think … it’s beneficial for shareholders,” he replied.
The US-listed, John Fredriksen-controlled company sold its fleet of seven handysizes to China Development Bank Financial Leasing in 2021 for a book gain of $40m.
Hjertaker told the call the deal was done “with good timing”.
But the idea for the supramaxes is to keep trading them.
“They generate good cash flow and certainly, a good return on invested capital,” he told analysts. “But whether or not we may sell them at some point, that we cannot say. They are definitely not identified and defined as sales candidates or being marketed as such in the market.
“But if you have a lot of cash and want to invest [in] them, I mean, we would be happy to entertain an offer by you.”
Meanwhile, two 114,000-dwt LR2 tankers, the SFL Sabine and SFL Trinity (both built 2017), are coming off charters to P66 in the third quarter of 2024.
Hjertaker said the charterer is very happy with the ships.
Upside for SFL?
“They fit very well in their programme, as we understand, and also the charter they are on today is way under the spot market,” he said. “So…if you ask anyone now, [they] wouldn’t hesitate to extend the charters.”
But SFL is still waiting to see whether optional periods are declared.
“If not, I would say it would be an upside for us,” he said.
SFL itself has the option of spending $100m on a share buyback.
“Clearly, we have seen the share price coming down in a market where we think the underlying value backing for most shipping stock — with replacement cost of the assets coming off and also that we own most of the residual in these assets — is a clear benefit for SFL,” Hjertaker said.
