Its numbers come after the planned merger of Frontline and Frontline 2012 took the status of John Fredriksen’s public tanker companies from "it’s complicated” to “in a relationship”, quips analyst Erik Nikolai Stavseth.
The analyst believes the enlarged company is heading for a profit of $393m in 2015, up from the collective gain of $85m across the two vehicles last year.
Profit of $200m is likely to follow in 2016, with a further $195m pencilled in for the year after, Stavseth’s figures show.
Frontline has said it will have a fleet of 90 vessels post-merger, including owned, chartered and commercially managed tonnage.It includes 22 newbuildings that were within Frontline 2012.
Stavseth believes it also has six options, four on VLCCs at STX and a couple of LR2s at New Times.
"The merged Frontline will have a total of 90 vessels all-in, but effectively the revenue-generating fleet will be grow from around 54 to 62 vessels over the next years due to redeliveries," he said.
"We see Frontline adding more tonnage both through orders/options as well as using the merged entity as a platform for M&A."
