SCF Group sees H1 net loss of $14,5m
According to the company's financial statement, net loss of Sovcomflot (SCF Group), Russia’s largest shipping company and a global leader in seaborne energy transportation and offshore services, according to IFRS for the first half of 2013 totaled $ 14.5 million, compared to a profit of $ 51 million a year earlier.
Profit, adjusted for impairment provisions and gains/losses on disposal of assets was $13.4 million, down 3.3 times year-on-year.
Gross revenue shrank by 14.2% - to $ 628.4 million, EBITDA declined by 20.3% - to $ 193.5 million
Commenting on the Group’s results Sergey Frank, President and CEO of OAO Sovcomflot, said: “The tanker shipping market remains extremely challenging, as we are effectively going through the fifth consecutive year of recession in the global shipping industry. In H1 2013 the Clarksea Tanker index was 8.4% lower than in H1 2012, marking another 20-year low. On the other hand, some “green shots” – in particular, a recent improvement product tanker rates – may indicate that the market has bottomed out. Given all this, we remain cautiously optimistic for 2014, and expect a slow recovery in the global tanker market to have begun by then in earnest. Sovcomflot also remains fully committed to our 2018 growth strategy, aimed at building a substantial presence in industrial shipping segments, such as LNG/LPG and upstream offshore services.”
SCF’s revenue base continued to benefit from more than 60% of the fleet being on time-charter and not exposed to spot market volatility, as well as from a solid USD 5 billion backlog of future contracted revenues.
As of 30 June 2013, the SCF Group fleet comprised 159 owned and chartered vessels (including vessels in joint ownership with third parties): 137 owned vessels, two chartered-in vessels, nine escort tugs which have been chartered-out on bareboat charter to an associate company – Rosnefteflot, and 4 LNG carriers and 9 LR1 product carriers in JV. The average age of our tanker fleet is 7,8 years, compared with an industry average of 15,8 years.
Assets under construction at the period-end comprised 8 vessels, with a total deadweight of over one million tonnes. This includes: two VLCCs and six gas carriers (four ice-class LNG, Ice 1C, 170,000 cubic metres; two LPG carriers, Ice 1B, 20,550 cubic metres). The SCF Group retains its leading position in the major conventional tanker market segments, and remains one of the largest ship owners and tanker fleet operators. According to research from Clarkson, the Group is ranked: first in the world by DWT tonnage and the number of Aframax vessels; in the world’s top-five by the DWT tonnage and the numbers of Suezmax vessels; first in MR-type oil product carriers; third in the number of shuttle tankers. SCF is also the world’s leading operator of ice-class tankers.
