Rickmers – BT

Rickmers lowers Q4 DPU on funding shortfalls

RICKMERS Maritime Trust put in a creditable fourth quarter performance despite the cloud of unsecured funding hanging over it, with charter revenue and income available for distribution rising 29 per cent and 12 per cent to US$38.1 million and US$17.7 million respectively.

Distribution per unit (DPU), however, dipped a little further even from its already cut level in the past two quarters to 0.57 US cent from 0.6 US cent in the past two quarters. Year-on-year, it was a 75 per cent drop from the 2.25 US cents it was giving a year earlier. This was due to Rickmers continuing to conserve cash in the face of funding shortfalls for deliveries due later this year.

For FY09, charter revenue rose 43 per cent to US$146.3 million from US$102.1 million the year before. The strong performance came on the back of revenue contributions from three new vessels delivered during the year.

For the full year, income available for distribution grew 36 per cent to US$76.1 million but DPU plunged by more than half to 3.91 US cents. This represents a payout of 14 per cent and 22 per cent of income available for distribution in Q4 and FY09 respectively.

Cash and cash equivalents have been building steadily over the year as Rickmers retained cash and as at Dec 31, 2009 stood at US$110.7 million.

Rickmers maintained high operational efficiency, with only 0.2 off-hire days in the fleet in Q4 and a total of 7.9 days in FY09, thereby maximising charter revenue for the trust. However, the Kaethe C Rickmers, a 5,060 TEU containership (formely Maersk Djibouti), was re-delivered to the trust from Maersk on Feb 1 and is proceeding with its first scheduled dry-docking in Asia, which should last till mid-March, management said. Rickmers is actively marketing the vessel for future employment.

Said Thomas Preben Hansen, CEO of trustee-manager Rickmers Trust Management: ‘With the cooperation of our ship manager, we have succeeded in providing our charterers with the highest level of operating efficiency at 99.9 per cent utilisation rate.’

CFO Quah Ban Huat noted that while the trust has enjoyed a good year in terms of financial and operational performance, its unresolved financing issues makes it necessary to continue with cash conservation efforts.

As negotiations with Rickmers’ lending banks are still ongoing, the trust is unable to provide any forward guidance on distribution. Since the beginning of the year, the trust has actively engaged its creditors in discussions on the resolution of its financing issues including its value-to-loan covenants, the refinancing of its US$130 million top-up loan facility maturing in April and the financing of its orderbook. None of these proposals have been accepted so far.