New York-listed financial shipowner SFL Corp boosted its dividend payouts again as it reported another profitable quarter and revealed the sale of a suezmax tanker.
The John Fredriksen-founded company made a net profit of $48.5m on $197.8m of operating revenue in the three months ended on 31 December 2022, as compared to the third-quarter figures of $49.9m net profit on $166.9m in operating revenue.
A year ago, TradeWinds reported that SFL had had a $80.1m net profit on $152m in operating revenue during the fourth quarter of 2021.
The most recent quarter’s bottom line translates to $0.38 in earnings per share, and SFL announced that it will pay most of that to shareholders, raising its dividend to $0.24 per share.
In its results announcement, the company highlighted the addition of new blue-chip customers.
SFL, originally founded in 2004 as an owning vehicle for John Fredriksen’s Frontline tanker fleet and later diversified to a much broader range of tonnage and shareholders, can now boast of 19 unbroken years of quarterly dividend payouts.
The Ole Hjertaker-led company also reported that in January, subsequent to the just announced results, it sold a 2009-built suezmax tanker, set for delivery this month to an unnamed party. The sale price of approximately $39m will yield some $23m after paying off debt, for a book gain of around $5m.
Based on the company’s fleet list, the vessel would seem to be the 156,000-dwt suezmax Glorycrown (built 2009), which trades spot in the Frontline fleet.
In the tanker sector, SFL made headlines last year with the well-timed purchase of more modern suezmaxes, including four ships it bought in August from Turkey’s Ciner Shipping and Chinese financier CSSC Leasing, which were delivered in the third and fourth quarters.
But liner shipping dominates the SFL fleet of 77 ships, which comprises 36 container ships, 17 tankers, 15 bulkers, seven car carriers and two harsh-environment drilling rigs.
Charters to AP Moller-Maersk alone account for 52% of its currently contracted revenue of $3.6m. The liner segment, counting both container ships and car carriers, accounts for $2.4m in fixed-rate charter backlog.
Most of the SFL fleet is on long-term time charter to end users including liner operators, oil majors, commodity traders, and carmakers. But eight capesizes are on charter to Fredriksen-controlled bulker owner Golden Ocean Group, and several other bulkers, tankers, and containerships are operated by SFL itself in the spot market.
Of gross revenues of $208m in the fourth quarter of 2022, $99m came from liner shipping, $49m from tankers, $24m from bulkers, and $36 from rigs.
Company officials were not immediately available to comment further on the result.
