The Great Eastern Shipping Company Ltd. (G E Shipping) took delivery of its 318,000 dwt Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) “Vasant J Sheth” from Hyundai Heavy Industries Ltd, (HHI) South Korea this morning and subsequently delivered the vessel to its new buyers.
This was the last vessel out of the 3 VLCCs which the Company had ordered at HHI in April 2010 and subsequently contracted to sell in Q1 FY12. All the three VLCCs were of the same capacity and have been delivered to the same buyer.
Five days back G E Shipping had signed a contract to sell “Jag Pradip”, a Medium Range (MR) product carrier. The 1996 built vessel of about 45,600dwt will be delivered to the buyers in Q1 FY2013.
G E Shipping is India’s largest private sector shipping company. Its fleet comprises of 34 vessels, including 24 tankers (9 crude carriers, 14 product tankers, 1 LPG carrier) and 10 dry bulk carriers (1 Capesize, 3 Kamsarmax, 1 Panamax, 4 Supramax, 1 Handymax) with an average age of 8.9 years aggregating 2.62 million DWT.
A spokesman of G. E. Shipping informed that the company has a non-disclosure agreement and hence he was unable to identify the buyer. “There is no expansion envisaged in the near future.” he confirmed. “Nor any fleet replacement expected, as the average age of our fleet is of 8.9 years.”
GE Shipping is India’s largest shipping company after the state-owned the Shipping Corporation of India. The company’s major businesses include shipping and offshore. The shipping business includes transportation of crude oil, petroleum products, gas and dry bulk commodities, while the offshore business caters to the oil companies in carrying out offshore exploration and production activities, through its wholly owned subsidiary Greatship India Ltd.
Great Eastern Shipping's (GE Shipping) Q4FY12 results were better than expectations. While higher revenue led to better EBITDA and margins, the lower depreciation and profit from sale of ships led to higher-than-expected profitability. Movement in foreign currency led to restatement of dollar denominated loans and in accordance with AS-16, $ 6.8 million was accounted for in interest cost during Q4 ($ 25.8 million for FY12). The company has marginally raised the revenue estimates to factor in the depreciation in Re vs USD. However, freight rates are likely to remain under pressure and impact margins going ahead. The company is focused on growing its offshore business under Greatship (India), and has an order book of four vessels, including a 350-foot jack-up rig.
In the last quarter consolidated revenue grew 36.7% YoY to $ 164.5 million viz 11.2% above company’s estimates. EBITDA grew 10.1% YoY $ 56.6 million, also 9.9% above expectations, however, PAT (adjusted for impairment loss) at $ 11.8million was down 38.7% YoY. Shipping revenue increased 14.2% YoY to $ 97.2 million on the back of higher revenue days (up 12.5% YoY to 3,205 days). Offshore revenues grew 45.4% YoY to $ 68 million.
Source: Maritime Professional