Norwegian financial leasing house Ocean Yield reported a larger third-quarter profit and disclosed the sale of six ships through purchase options.
It also said it secured all necessary regulatory approvals for its purchase of a 34% stake in France LNG Shipping, a joint venture of NYK Group and Geogas LNG.
The Oslo-listed shipowner said it garnered $23.2m in profit during the quarter, which was better than the $18.5m a year earlier.
When adjusted for lease effects, Ebitda rose to $94.6m from $79m. Revenue increased to $61m from $54.5m.
Chief executive Andreas Rode described it as a “stable” quarter that was focused on closing the LNG deal, which is expected to finalise in December. The deal involves six LNG carriers on the water and two on order.
“The LNG transaction will be transformational for Ocean Yield, introducing a new segment to the portfolio, with strong partners and end users,” he said.
“The infrastructure-like characteristics of LNG fits well with our strategy of investing in long-term, stable cash flows to tier-one counterparties.”
The third-quarter results brought nine-month profit to $70.7m, up from $69.2m in the same period of 2023.
Ocean Yield ended the quarter with $203m in cash, as well as $1.39bn in interest-bearing debt.
The lessor said purchase options were exercised on the 40,100-dwt Interlink Fortuity and Interlink Celerity (both built 2017), and the bulkers head to their new owner in the first quarter of next year.
The ships are operated by Interlink Maritime, a Carlyle Group-owned shipowner that swapped them into an existing lease for other ships financed by Ocean Yield.
Another sale came as no surprise.
Ocean Yield said purchase options were exercised on the 3,836-teu Detroit Express, Livorno Express, Genoa Express and Barcelona Express (all built 2014).
The ships had been leased to Compagnie Maritime Belge, and TradeWinds reported in September that they were sold to MPC Container Ships for $180m, a deal that probably required CMB to exercise its option to buy them first.
