Frontline Ltd., the owner of 40 oil tankers led by billionaire John Fredriksen, said fourth-quarter losses widened as the company split to withstand the worst rout in rates for 12 years, Bloomberg reports. The net loss for the final three months of 2011 was $343.7 million compared with $11.9 million a year earlier, the Hamilton, Bermuda-based company said in a statement today. That included $312.9 million from the sale of ships as part of the restructuring.
Frontline said in November it risked running out of cash and sold its most modern vessels and outstanding orders at shipyards to a new company called Frontline 2012. The largest oil tankers earned $22,137 a day last year, 77 percent less than their peak in 2004 and the lowest annual average since 1999, according to data from Clarkson Research Services Ltd., a unit of the world’s largest shipbroker. The company may return to profit this year, Jens Martin Jensen, chief executive officer of Frontline’s management unit, said in an interview.
“The bottom could be 2012, but it’s a long walk uphill to the glory days,” Erik Nikolai Stavseth, an Oslo-based analyst at Arctic Securities ASA, said before the announcement. “The key shareholders will focus on the newly formed Frontline 2012. We see Frontline as a ’run-off’ company.”
The total capacity of the largest oil tankers, known in the industry as very large crude carriers, will expand 6.4 percent this year, Clarkson estimates. Global oil demand will grow 0.9 percent, according to the International Energy Agency. The number of VLCCs swelled 13 percent to 563 since the end of 2007, when daily earnings reached $229,000, according to data from Clarkson and Redhill, England-based IHS Fairplay.
Positive Territory
The restructuring included the sale of five VLCCs on order, six modern supertankers and four Suezmax tankers to Frontline 2012 for $1.23 billion.
Frontline’s biggest ships need $23,900 a day to break even. That’s more than the $12,094 anticipated by freight derivatives next quarter on the benchmark Saudi Arabia-to-Japan voyage, data from London-based broker Marex Spectron Group show. Earnings this quarter are about $16,000 a day, Frontline said.
“It doesn’t take much more market development to happen before we could be moving into positive territory again,” Jensen said. “It could be before the end of the year.”
In a sign that the drop in vessel prices may be near an end, Fredriksen ordered six oil-product tankers from STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co. for 235.5 billion won ($210 million), the Changwon, South Korea-based company said Feb. 14.
Cheapest Tankers
“Mr. Fredriksen can see we are entering into a phase where there’s more and more good opportunities coming,” Jensen said. “The worst thing that could happen is that we have been through two very hard years and if there’s a recovery in maybe 12 or 24 months time it would be quite sad if you haven’t done anything before the recovery comes.”
New tankers are the cheapest in as many as 15 years and save money by using less fuel than older ships, industry newspaper TradeWinds and London’s Financial Times cited Fredriksen as saying in the past two weeks. The billionaire plans to make a “substantial” order later this year for VLCCs, according to the FT.
The new tankers will probably go to Frontline 2012 or Fredriksen could also own them through his own company, according to Jensen.
Frontline said in November it risked running out of cash and sold its most modern vessels and outstanding orders at shipyards to a new company called Frontline 2012. The largest oil tankers earned $22,137 a day last year, 77 percent less than their peak in 2004 and the lowest annual average since 1999, according to data from Clarkson Research Services Ltd., a unit of the world’s largest shipbroker. The company may return to profit this year, Jens Martin Jensen, chief executive officer of Frontline’s management unit, said in an interview.
“The bottom could be 2012, but it’s a long walk uphill to the glory days,” Erik Nikolai Stavseth, an Oslo-based analyst at Arctic Securities ASA, said before the announcement. “The key shareholders will focus on the newly formed Frontline 2012. We see Frontline as a ’run-off’ company.”
The total capacity of the largest oil tankers, known in the industry as very large crude carriers, will expand 6.4 percent this year, Clarkson estimates. Global oil demand will grow 0.9 percent, according to the International Energy Agency. The number of VLCCs swelled 13 percent to 563 since the end of 2007, when daily earnings reached $229,000, according to data from Clarkson and Redhill, England-based IHS Fairplay.
Positive Territory
The restructuring included the sale of five VLCCs on order, six modern supertankers and four Suezmax tankers to Frontline 2012 for $1.23 billion.
Frontline’s biggest ships need $23,900 a day to break even. That’s more than the $12,094 anticipated by freight derivatives next quarter on the benchmark Saudi Arabia-to-Japan voyage, data from London-based broker Marex Spectron Group show. Earnings this quarter are about $16,000 a day, Frontline said.
“It doesn’t take much more market development to happen before we could be moving into positive territory again,” Jensen said. “It could be before the end of the year.”
In a sign that the drop in vessel prices may be near an end, Fredriksen ordered six oil-product tankers from STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co. for 235.5 billion won ($210 million), the Changwon, South Korea-based company said Feb. 14.
Cheapest Tankers
“Mr. Fredriksen can see we are entering into a phase where there’s more and more good opportunities coming,” Jensen said. “The worst thing that could happen is that we have been through two very hard years and if there’s a recovery in maybe 12 or 24 months time it would be quite sad if you haven’t done anything before the recovery comes.”
New tankers are the cheapest in as many as 15 years and save money by using less fuel than older ships, industry newspaper TradeWinds and London’s Financial Times cited Fredriksen as saying in the past two weeks. The billionaire plans to make a “substantial” order later this year for VLCCs, according to the FT.
The new tankers will probably go to Frontline 2012 or Fredriksen could also own them through his own company, according to Jensen.