Belships has received a financial boost from its merger with Lighthouse Group, completed on 10 December, and now the two companies are focusing on combining their business processes.
Belships’ profit for the fourth quarter 2018 was $14.2m, compared to $16m in the same period in 2017, according to its latest financial report.
The result was boosted by a purchase bargain gain of $12.8m from Belships' reverse acquisition of Lighthouse, while the same period in 2017 included an impairment reversal of $9.5m.
Overall, this helped the Norwegian owner achieve a net result of $19.2m for the full year 2018, compared to $15.4m the previous year.
Since completing the merger, technical management of three Lighthouse ships has been been transferred to Belships Management (Singapore), with another six vessels to follow.
When this transfer is completed, technical management for all ships will be handled by Belships Management (Singapore).
“Complementing management activities create a complete in-house operational structure, ideally positioning Belships as a platform for further growth,” Belships said.
“The company will concentrate on the dry bulk market and expect to benefit from a fully in-house commercial and technical management.”
Five vessels are on long-term charter, with the remaining 10 ships being operated in the spot market by Belships’ subsidiary Lighthouse Navigation in Bangkok.
The charter coverage represents a future nominal gross hire of around $30m, said Belships, which plans to continue this combination of charter backlog and spot exposure.
“The market for supramax/ultramax has seen a rapid improvement after Chinese New Year and we expect this to continue, especially when the US-China trade tension eventually comes to an end,” Belships said in a filing.
Lighthouse Navigation had on average 18 vessels on charter during 2018.
