| Ocean Yield plans further expansion after 1Q15 |
| Ocean Yield, a listed Norwegian tonnage provider controlled by the Aker group, said it is prepared to continue its expansion after reporting a steady profit for the first quarter of 2015. Group net profit amounted to USD28.1 million in the first quarter of 2015 compared with USD28.6 million in the same period last year. The company's revenue also rose to USD62.6 million from USD59.7 million. "With the recent bond issue of NOK1 billion (USD131 million) and the USD220 million refinancing of Aker Wayfarer completed, Ocean Yield has a strong cash position which gives further comfort with respect to the company’s ability to continue to make new investments and to pay attractive and increasing dividends," Ocean Yield said in a statement. "Over the past 12 months, Ocean Yield has committed to approximately USD880 million in new investments, which should increase the current EBITDA with about 40%, when all vessels are delivered at the end of 2016," the company. Ocean Yield's contract backlog is becoming more diversified across several segments and has now an average tenure of 10.2 years weighted by EBITDA, which gives visibility with respect to future earnings and dividend capacity. Commenting on the figures, Erik Nikolai Stavseth and Kurt Waldeland, shipping analysts at Arctic Securities in Oslo, said that Ocean Yield's management got busy towards the end of the quarter, announcing the acquisition of eight newbuild chemical tankers as well as a new unsecured bond and a new revolving credit facility. "This secures near-term cash flow growth and opens up for further investments. The charter backlog, including the chemical tankers, now stands at USD2.8 billion in revenues and USD2.7 billion on an EBITDA basis with an average weighted tenure of 10.2 years," the analysts said in a market report emailed to IHS Maritime. Ocean Yield has eight newbuildings on order, comprising four chemical carriers, two liquefied ethylene carriers, and two pure car truck carriers (PCTCs). The company currently has four PCTCs; one diving support vessel; one subsea support vessel; one subsea construction vessel; two anchor handling tug supply units; and a floating production, storage, and offloading unit in the water. |