Nordic American Offshore Ltd. (NYSE:NAO) - Letter to Shareholders from the Executive Chairman.
GlobeNewswire
Hamilton, Bermuda, September 18, 2014
Press release from Nordic American Offshore Ltd.
Dear Shareholder,
Nordic American Offshore Ltd. (NAO) has now been listed on the New York Stock Exchange for more than three months. As I write this letter, the stock is trading above $19, a significant premium to the IPO price in June 2014. In addition, we have paid out $0.90 per share in dividends in total for the two first quarters of 2014. Our vessels are continuing to perform at the highest level, which is appreciated by shareholders, customers and management alike. At this time the yield on the NAO stock is about 10 percent.
When we set out to create NAO at the end of 2013, we wanted to differentiate the company from the competition, just as we have done with Nordic American Tankers (NAT) in its field. NAT has paid dividends for 68 consecutive quarters. We focus on one type of asset, a strong balance sheet, a low cash breakeven level, with all operating cash flow to be paid out to shareholders, a high free float and a liquid stock. In addition to being able to buy and sell stock when you desire, liquidity is important for shareholders to ensure accurate valuation and to reduce volatility.
The distribution of NAO shares by way of the dividend-in-kind by our sponsor, Nordic American Tankers, has helped increase the NAO shareholder base to about 35,000 individual investors. This is in contrast to several of our listed peers, who have between two thousand and three thousand shareholders. Liquidity in the company`s stock is strong with between 1% and 1.5% of the shares changing hands every day. Given the premise that NAO was originally started less than a year ago, it is very satisfactory to observe that we already have such a large following.
So far, everything has developed as we planned and communicated to investors. Our operational performance has resulted in clients extending and renewing contracts. The company has on order four PSVs to be delivered from Norwegian yards during 2015 at which time NAO will have 10 vessels in operation. We have received positive feedback from our customers regarding the operational quality of our vessels and we already have inquiries from customers for employment of the first pair of vessels expected to be delivered in January 2015.
The four newbuildings to be delivered in 2015 are expected to be financed with the proceeds from the recent IPO and with a credit facility. This means that as the vessels are delivered, the dividend capacity of the company will increase at various day rate levels.
NAO has been able to establish itself firmly as a player in the offshore supply vessel industry in a very short period of time, thanks to the sponsorship by NAT, the manager of NAO.
NAO is in an excellent position to grow accretively. After an acquisition of vessel(s) the company shall be able to pay a higher dividend per share and produce higher earnings per share than had such acquisition(s) not taken place. We are actively looking for acquisition opportunities that fit in with our high-specification fleet. I am hopeful that NAO will grow significantly in the coming years while generating strong total returns.
We are very pleased that Tor-Øyvind Bjørkli (43 - Msc.) has joined NAO as Chief Executive Officer. Both his experience as an offshore broker for many years and his employment in the Florida branch office of DnV GL give him a strong background for the job. The classification society DnV GL is certifying the seaworthiness of ships with about 16,000 employees in more than 100 countries. Another newcomer in our camp is Linda Krogh Jørgensen, an energetic and knowledgeable Chartering Manager.
I thank you for your support of our new company and look forward to an exciting future.
Kind Regards, Herbjørn Hansson Executive Chairman Nordic American Offshore Ltd.
Matters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides safe harbor protections for forward-looking statements in order to encourage companies to provide prospective information about their business. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements, which are other than statements of historical facts.
The Company desires to take advantage of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and is including this cautionary statement in connection with this safe harbor legislation. The words "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "estimate," "forecast," "project," "plan," "potential," "may," "should," "expect," "pending" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements.
The forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions, including without limitation, our management`s examination of historical operating trends, data contained in our records and other data available from third parties. Although we believe that these assumptions were reasonable when made, because these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond our control, we cannot assure you that we will achieve or accomplish these expectations, beliefs or projections. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Important factors that, in our view, could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements include the strength of world economies and currencies, general market conditions, including fluctuations in charter rates and vessel values, changes in demand in the PSV market, as a result of changes in the general market conditions of the oil and natural gas industry which influence charter hire rates and vessel values, demand in platform supply vessels, our operating expenses, including bunker prices, dry docking and insurance costs, governmental rules and regulations or actions taken by regulatory authorities as well as potential liability from pending or future litigation, general domestic and international political conditions, potential disruption of shipping routes due to accidents or political events, the availability of financing and refinancing, vessel breakdowns and instances of off-hire and other important factors described from time to time in the reports filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
This announcement is distributed by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions on behalf of NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions clients.
The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein. Source: Nordic American Tankers Limited via GlobeNewswire HUG#1856776
