Hoegh LNG Partners is primed for a dropdown — but not for a few years.
The New York-listed limited partnership's chief executive Steffen Foreid said three of its sponsor's floating storage and regasification units (FSRU) are on contracts that expire either in 2020 or 2021.
"And that means that they go off their current interim contracts in a timely manner to be able to start-off on the FSRU projects that we currently are bidding on, because the FSRU projects that we currently are bidding on, they have a startup in mid-2020, 2021 period," Foreid told analysts on the company's fourth-quarter earnings call.
He said the plan was for the three vessels — the Giant, Esperanza and Gannet — to go on long-term contracts before the dropdown.
Foreid said LNG market data shows global production shooting up from last year's 320 tonnes to 550 tonnes in 2030.
Fourth-quarter performance
For the last three months of 2018, Hoegh LNG Partners posted $16.1m in profit, a year-over-year decline from the $20.9m profit posted in the fourth quarter of 2017.
The company said four of its five ships were on the water for the entire quarter, save the 170,051-cbm Hoegh Gallant (built 2014), which was held out due to performance claims.
Its earnings per share figure came in at $0.40, six cents lower than analyst forecast.
The company posted total revenue of $37.8m and Ebitda of $37.5m, while cutting a $0.44 per share distribution.
