4.1.10

Pramoni: part of Norway's Platou Finance


The Singaporean-flagged chemical tanker, the Pramoni, which was highjacked by Somali pirates on January 1st, is owned by a Norwegian shipping group, and leased by an Indonesian company.

The ship, managed by Platou Finance in Oslo was seized in the Gulf of Aden while en route to India, and this was the the first attack by Somali pirates this year. The DH fully stainless steel ’Pramoni’ (19,990dwt-built 2008) was acquired by Platou K/S for 52.75 $m, including 12 years BBC to Berlian Laju at 15,100$/day, with purchase option.

Among the 20,000 deadweight-ton vessel’s 24-man crew are 17 Indonesian nationals, five Chinese, a Nigerian and a Vietnamese,

RS Platou Finance is an independent company within the Platou Group utilising the full potential of having close contact with shipbrokers, ship-owners, ship managers, bankers, lawyers and consultants worldwide. Oslo, Singapore, Aberdeen, London, Houston, Moscow, Lagos, Copenhagen, Shanghai, Istanbul, Geneva and Rio de Janeiro. Our multinational staff numbers about 280 persons.



Berlian Laju Tankers (BLT) reported Q3'09 EBITDA just slightly below our estimates. While peers have reported double digit declines in chemical tanker earnings q/q, BLT's rates were only down 3% likely due to its robust operation and limited dependence on the product tanker market.

* Net revenues were USD 99m just as we had estimated in our Shipping Quarterly. EBITDA came in at USD 48m vs. our USD 51m. Deviation due to USD 3m higher costs evenly distributed on charter hire and G&A. Vessel opex remained unchanged at a low $4,100/day on average.
* We calculate that time-charter equivalent earnings were down only 3% on average compared to Q2. This is much better performance than peers which have reported declines of 19% (Odfjell) and 15% (Eitzen Chemical) due to their exposure to the weak product tanker market. BLT has 63 chemical tankers in operations mainly in the regional, stainless steel segment.
* No news about the ongoing take-over of Camillo Eitzen. We make marginal changes to our operating estimates while increase our interest expense assumption somewhat. Based on our estimates, BLT trades attractively at 80% of NAV and 7.6x 2010e EBITDA (based on 5% higher chemical rates y/y).

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