FSL, PST – BT

DPUs fall at First Ship, Pacific Shipping in Q4

Income available for distribution also slips for both trusts

FIRST Ship Lease Trust (FSLT) and Pacific Shipping Trust (PST) both saw their distribution per unit (DPU) fall for the fourth quarter and full year of 2010.

FSLT recorded DPU of 0.95 US cents in Q4, a 36.7 per cent dive from 1.5 US cents for the year-ago period. PST saw a much milder dip, with its DPU down 2 per cent to 0.809 US cents from 0.827 US cent.

Both trusts saw fourth-quarter income available for distribution slipping. FSLT’s fell 36.7 per cent to US$5.68 million from US$8.98 million, while PST’s slid 8 per cent, from US$7 million to US$6.44 million for the quarter.

For the full year, total DPU for FSLT was 4.35 US cents, down from 7.90 US cents. PST’s stood at 3.227 US cents, down from 3.615 US cents.

Full year income available for distribution dropped for FSLT to US$28.48 million from US$50.85 million, whereas PST’s was US$26.52 million, down 2 per cent against 2009’s US$27.07 million.

FSLT posted revenues of US$24.1 million in the fourth quarter, 1.5 per cent down y-o-y, and US$100.5 million for the full-year, up 1.7 per cent from FY2009.

PST’s gross revenue from its 12 long-term charter vessels also stayed flat at US$15.3 million and US$61.3 million, a drop of 2 and 1 per cent, for the quarter and full-year period, respectively.

PST’s net profit shed 8 per cent to US$6.57 million for the quarter and was lower by 1 per cent at US$27.1 million for the full year.

FSLT sank into the red for the fourth quarter, with a loss of US$928,000, from profits of US$1.8 million in the same period last year. It also recorded losses of US$5.69 million for the full year, as compared with profit of US$8.42 a year ago.

Affecting FSLT’s bottom line was the arrest and re-delivery of two of its vessels, FSL Hamburg and FSL Singapore mid-last year.

FSLT took delivery of the vessels after their charterers said in May they ‘did not intend to continue to make full lease payments under the bareboat charter lease agreements’.

In June, they were subsequently arrested by Daxin Petroleum in China and Japan, as Daxin had not been paid for bunkers supplied to these vessels.

The overall financial impact of their arrest and re-delivery was at a cost of US$11.2 million to FSLT.

FSLT units gained half a US cent to end at 47.5 US cents in trading yesterday. PST closed half a US cent up at 37 US cents.