Rickmers – BT

Rickmers keeps Q4 DPU at 0.6 US cts

RICKMERS Maritime reported distribution per unit for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2011 of 0.60 US cents, unchanged from the year-ago period.

The shipping trust’s full-year DPU comes up to 2.4 US cents, which marks a 4 per cent increase from 2010’s 2.31 US cents.

Q4 cash flow available for distribution – before payment to debtors – for the final quarter was down 13 per cent from the previous year to US$25.8 million from US$29.7 million

For the full-year, cash flow for distribution before debt repayment was US$107.3 million, a 6 per cent decline from FY2010’s US$114.3 million.

Rickmers recorded US$11.3 million of net profit for the last quarter of fiscal 2011, 43 per cent down from the preceding year-ago quarter’s $20 million, which included a US$7.3 million vessel impairment writeback.

It also managed to reverse its 2010 losses to end the year firmly in the black, with $40.3 million net profits compared to 2010’s $28.6 million loss, which took into consideration a US$64 million compensation fee to discharge the group from its obligation to purchase seven vessels.

Rickmers managed to bump up its fourth-quarter and full-year revenue by 3 per cent and 2 per cent, respectively, to $37.8 million and $149.5 million. This was thanks to a higher daily charter rate of US$23,888 for its box ship Kaethe C Rickmers, in effect since March 25, 2011, from the previous rate of US$8,288.

However, Rickmers management warned that as the vessel finishes its one-year charter contract and is redelivered in a few weeks’ time, it may not find immediate re-employment.

And even if it does, said CEO of Rickmers Maritime’s trustee-manager, Thomas Preben Hansen, Kaethe C Rickmers’ secured charter rate would be far lower than in its previous outing.

That said, Rickmers’ 15 other container vessels are on long-term leases stretching until 2019, with average daily charter rates of US$26,120 in 2012. These agreements will fetch the trust US$615 million of secured revenue between Jan 1, 2012 till 2019.

Given the collapse of charter rates which have resulted in some charterer defaults in the dry bulk vessel segment, Mr Hansen said that the same has not yet been seen in the container vessel segment.

‘I don’t foresee the same degree of default and reneging that has been happening in dry bulk sector (in the container shipping market),’ he said, explaining that the bulk carrier market has far more smaller operators than container shipping.

Mr Hansen said that Rickmers has no plans to buy new vessels.

Rickmers Maritime was last traded at 31 cents.