Greece's Okeanis Eco Tankers has revealed why it is unlikely to be selling ships any time soon.
Executives from the Oslo-listed, Alafouzos family company told analysts on a conference call that a combination of strong market rates and coronavirus restrictions have closed the sale-and-purchase window for now.
The company has fixed out two VLCCs on term contracts — one for three years, another for eight months — in the first quarter.
Chief operating officer Aristidis Alafouzos said Okeanis was still looking at opportunities to fix suezmaxes on period charters and is "quite confident" it will find some deals.
He added that the company started to position vessels for sale late in the fourth quarter of 2019 and early this year, but there have been difficulties.
"The virus made inspections extremely difficult — and the process of crew change," he said.
"With the oil price, buyers have taken a step back and they're looking at if it's the right time or not, so I think for the short term S&P is on hold."
Regarding the three-year charter, chief financial officer John Papaioannou added that time-charter rates on offer were superior to a sale at the time.
"We are still interested in more coverage," he said.
He added that Okeanis is “still actively monitoring S&P”, but it is not sticking to an exact formula.
“It’s just about staying close to the brokers and evaluating anything that comes through,” he said.
Aristidis Alafouzos added that the company is not as big as some of its competitors.
“We don’t have 100% time-charter exposure, so there will be ships that can be sold,” he said.
More dividends coming
Okeanis has cash of $26.2m, with assets standing at $1.2bn and debt at nearly $794m. It paid off $10m of borrowings in the first quarter.
Net profit in the period was $41.1m, prompting its first cash dividend of $16.2m.
Chief executive Ioannis Alafouzos said the pandemic made markets too uncertain to commit to a dividend policy.
"But what I can promise is that we are committed to further payouts as we won't let cash build up on our balance sheet," he said. "I would be extremely surprised if this were not one of a number of dividend payments this year."
