Press release from Nordic American Offshore Ltd. (NAO) - Letter to Shareholders from the Chairman. Increased Ownership. Dividend to Continue.
Hamilton, Bermuda, March 17, 2015
Dear Shareholder,
I would like to share my thoughts with you as we approach Nordic American Offshore`s first anniversary of listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in June 2014. At that time, we entered the market for Platform Supply Vessels (PSVs) against a background of high, stable oil prices and record investment levels in the offshore segment.
I believe it is justified to keep an optimistic outlook for the future. Nine months existence for a start-up company is a short period in the life of a company that owns a young fleet.
A company owned and controlled by my son Alexander and I bought 50,000 NAO shares yesterday at about USD 7.83 per share, in addition to the stock ownership we have direct and indirect in NAO.
Currently the market for our vessels is turbulent - the decline in oil price has led to reductions in exploration activity in the North Sea, in turn lowering the number of working oil rigs and the demand for PSVs.
Five vessels in our eight vessel fleet are currently employed on contracts, up from three last quarter. Three of our vessels are operating in the spot market. At the time of this letter to you, we enter a period of greater visibility on earnings and security in the current challenging environment. We have achieved in excess of 80% utilization which is a sound performance in the current market conditions. Rates for the spot ships have been reduced this year as a consequence of the low oil prices.
For NAO as a start-up company, employing three vessels in the spot market serves an important purpose in terms of marketing our modern, fuel efficient and homogeneous vessels to the many customers operating in the North Sea and elsewhere. Demonstrating the performance of our vessels and operations for shorter jobs is important as we seek to be the first choice provider of PSVs as our fleet grows. We recently contracted two vessels to Statoil to assist on the prestigious Polarled project, securing employment for those vessels for several months going forward.
When observing PSV rates, we must consider two important factors. First, utilization and rates in our market are always affected by the winter season when non-essential work tends to be postponed until weather conditions are more favorable.
Second, our vessels operate in local currency, Norwegian Kroner in the Norwegian sector and British Pounds in the British sector. This also applies to our expenses. The weaker reported rates are impacted by the appreciation of the US dollar.
Conversely, our two vessels delivered from the Norwegian yard of Ulstein earlier this year were ordered from the yard in Norwegian Kroner. The realized currency gain on these two vessels was about USD 8 mill per vessels, actually reducing the USD price from about USD 44 mill to about USD 36 mill. It is indeed comforting to see that an economic advantage of about USD 32 mill may be achieved - spread across four vessels delivered in 2015.
The two additional vessels will be delivered to us later this year. We expect to capture similar reductions in cost on those vessels, given the Norwegian Kroner/ USD relationship to be at the same level as now. Our positioning by ordering the vessels in NOK and reaping the benefits of a stronger dollar, has indeed given our shareholders an extra economic benefit.
The low oil price continues to put pressure on our industry. The fundamentals in the oil market suggest an improved balance between supply and demand for crude oil in the second half of this year. When Brent crude prices return to the $60 - $80 range per barrel we expect to see renewed activity in our market, and improved demand for our vessels.
The geopolitical situation involving Russia has also affected our market. Vessels owned by other companies that were due to work in the Arctic regions had their charters cancelled. Those vessels were drawn from the North Sea and their return to this market has contributed to an oversupply of vessels. Should the political situation change and sanctions against Russia be removed, this should affect our market positively.
In our 2014 start-up year we declared total dividends of $1.80 per share. Going forward we will review the dividend on a quarterly basis in the same way as Nordic American Tankers (NAT) has done in the past. NAO basically employs the same strategy as NAT. A strong balance sheet and low cost breakeven are the key elements of our robust long-term performance. We expect to continue to pay a dividend going forward - although, for the time being, at a lower level than for the previous quarters when the dividend was 0.45 USD per share.
Our strategy is designed to remain robust in strong and weak markets. With that said we are positive about the oil price in coming years. We expect to reap the benefits of an improved oil price which will be a stimulus to the activities of the PSV market.
With a low cash break even and an improved market, we expect that a higher oil price should form the basis for improved commercial results for Nordic American Offshore.
With my best personal regards,
Herbjørn Hansson
Executive Chairman
Nordic American Offshore Ltd.
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
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.
Contacts:
| Jacob Ellefsen, Manager, IR and Research
Nordic American Offshore Ltd.
Tel: +33 678 631 959 or + 377 93 25 89 07
Tor-Øyvind Bjørkli, Chief Executive Officer
Nordic American Offshore Ltd.
Tel: +47 21 99 24 81 or +47 90 62 70 14
|
| Herbjørn Hansson, Executive Chairman
Nordic American Offshore Ltd.
Tel: +1 866 805 9504 or + 47 901 46 291
Gary J.Wolfe
Seward & Kissel LLP, New York, USA
Tel: +1 212 574 1223
|
Web-site: www.nao.bm
Press release (PDF)
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Source: Nordic American Tankers Limited via GlobeNewswire
HUG#1904131
