PST – BT

Pacific Shipping Trust Q1 DPU falls 19%

Revenue from trust’s vessels stays flat at US$15.2m

PACIFIC Shipping Trust (PST) has registered a 19 per cent drop in first-quarter distribution per unit (DPU) to 0.793 US cent, from 0.980 US cent a year back.

The latest DPU is also a drop from 0.827 US cent in Q4 2009, as revenue from the trust’s 12 vessels stayed flat at US$15.2 million.

Income retained for working capital rose to US$10 million, from US$3.2 million in Q1 2009. As a result, income for distribution fell to US$4.7 million, from US$5.8 million previously.

‘PST continues to deliver a healthy performance as a result of our prudent financing structure and the fact that our vessels are fully financed,’ said Teo Choo Wee, acting chief executive of trustee-manager PST Management.

‘Our stable financial situation and cash retention place PST in a position to capture accretive opportunities for strategic fleet expansion as the market gradually recovers.’

Mr Teo also said at PST’s Q4 results presentation that he was looking to undertake ‘value-accretive acquisitions’.

Troubled Chilean line Compania Sud Americana de Vapores, which has chartered two vessels from PST for five years, has recently raised US$773 million of new capital, PST said.

It also said that the recovery of the container ship market in Q4 last year continued into Q1 this year, with an increase in freight rates adding to a rise in asset prices.

‘The freight rate recovery continued into Q1 2010, triggering the gradual reactivation of idle tonnage in the container ship sector,’ Mr Teo said.

‘We are cautiously optimistic that with improving freight rates and global trade forecast to grow 9.5 per cent in 2010, charter rates have begun to bottom out.’

PST’s Q1 DPU represents a tax-free annualised yield of 10.8 per cent based on yesterday’s closing unit price of 29.5 US cents.