New York-listed NAT paid $0.40 per share in the second quarter, its highest payout in half a decade but well below the $0.61 per share quarterly cash flow.
This lead to the suggestion among analysts that NAT was preserving cash to aid in a fleet renewal process.
Hansson, chief executive of NAT, said any suggestions that NAT is adopting a different strategy are totally wrong.
“From time to time adjustments are made depending upon a number of questions – including risk management,” Hansson explained in an email exchange with TradeWinds today.
“All companies must renew the fleet - in a continuous process. As explicitly said in our reports, quality is the main thing - not age,” he added.
While NAT has a number of vessels built in the 1990s, Hansson says the company’s vetting statistics are at the top of the industry.
Hansson concluded: “You will never see that NAT becomes like the other crude oil companies. Quarterly dividends are always a trademark of NAT.”
