TEN Ltd. Announces the Delivery and Long – Term Charter of New DP2 Shuttle Tanker
TEN, Ltd. a leading diversified crude, product and LNG tanker operator, announced the delivery of its fourth DP2 shuttle tanker, the Porto, from a South Korean yard and the commencement of her employment, of up to 11 years, at an accretive rate, to a major end user. The gross proceeds of this fixture, over the minimum duration of the contract, are expected to exceed $80 million.
“We are delighted to welcome the timely construction, in spite of the pandemic disruptions, of such technologically advanced and environmentally friendly vessel and look forward to it becoming a major contributor to TEN’s bottom line for the years to come,” Mr. George Saroglou, COO of TEN, Ltd. commented. “Such vessel and employment highlights our strategic approach in producing long-term secured revenues and makes TEN the carrier of choice for the strategic needs of our clients,” Mr. Saroglou concluded.
TEN Ltd. Announces 24-Month Charter for Two Panamax Tankers
TEN Ltd., a leading crude, product and LNG tanker operator, has announced the 24-month extension to the charter of two panamax tankers with the existing charterer, a leading South American oil concern. The employment, at an accretive floor rate with favorable upside optionality, is expected to generate minimum gross revenues of about $25 million over the duration of the respective contracts.
“Long-term continuity is in the core of TEN’s commercial strategy with the establishment and expansion of solid partnerships,” Mr. George Saroglou, COO of TEN commented. “In today’s uncertain environment, such strategy ensures full fleet utilization and upside potential, directly reflected on the Company’s bottom line,” Mr. Saroglou concluded.
TEN Ltd. Announces Delivery and Long-Term Charter of LNG Carrier TENERGY
TEN Ltd., a leading crude, product and LNG tanker operator, announced the delivery of the 174,000cbm LNG carrier “TENERGY” in South Korea and immediate charter to a major end-user.
The employment, of minimum five years at an accretive floor rate with market-related upside is expected to generate minimum gross revenues of about $100 million.
“We are excited to continue expanding our presence in the ever-developing LNG space with the delivery and charter of this latest technology and environmentally friendly vessel,” Mr. George Saroglou, COO of TEN commented. “TEN’s growth prospects and cash flow visibility, with a minimum revenue backlog of over $1 billion, with additional upside potential, enables management to pursue its growth strategy and diversify further TEN’s footprint in the greater energy sector,” Mr. Saroglou concluded.
TEN, founded in 1993 is one of the first and most established public shipping companies in the world. TEN’s diversified energy fleet currently consists of 71 double-hull vessels totaling 8.0 m dwt. Its newbuilding program includes one suezmax DP2 shuttle tanker and four dual-fuel LNG powered aframax vessels.
TEN Ltd. Declares Dividend on its Series D and Series E Cumulative Perpetual Preferred Shares
TEN Ltd., a leading diversified crude, product and LNG tanker operator, announced that its Board of Directors declared the regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.546875 per share for its Series D Cumulative Perpetual Preferred Shares (the “Series D Preferred Shares”; NYSE; TNPPRD) and the regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.578125 per share for its Series E Cumulative Perpetual Preferred Shares (the “Series E Preferred Shares”; NYSE; TNPPRE).
The dividend on the Series D and Series E is for the period from the most recent dividend payment date on May 28, 2021 through August 27, 2021.
The dividend on the Series D and E Preferred Shares will be paid on August 30, 2021 to all holders of record of Series D and E Preferred Shares as of August 25, 2021. Dividends on the Series D and E Preferred Shares are payable quarterly in arrears on the 28th day (unless the 28th falls on a weekend or public holiday, in which case the payment date is moved to the next business day) of February, May, August and November of each year, when, as and if declared by TEN’s board of directors. This is the 25th dividend on the Series D and the 18th dividend on the Series E since their commencement of trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
TEN has 3,484,979 Series D and 4,701,377 Series E Preferred Shares outstanding as of the date of this press release.
TEN Ltd. Reports $140 Million In First Quarter Revenues And Positive Operating Income In A Challenging Market
TEN, Ltd. reported results (unaudited) for the quarter ended March 31, 2021.
Q1 2021 SUMMARY RESULTS
In the first quarter of 2021, under the challenging backdrop of the pandemic that affected tanker rates, TEN generated gross revenues of about $140 million and operating income of $2.2 million.
Management took advantage of this low-rate period to bring forward a number of scheduled dry-dockings in order to have a bigger pool of vessels available to achieve higher rates once markets rebound. As a result, TEN incurred modest net losses of $4.8 million in this challenging market.
During this time, revenue generated from time-charter contracts was again sufficient to cover the Company’s cash expenses (opex, overheads, charter-in and loan interest), a cornerstone of TEN’s chartering strategy.
Fleet utilization at a healthy 92% despite the heavy dry-docking schedule in the first quarter of 2021.
The daily average TCE per vessel was $18,121 during the 2021 first quarter, comfortably above our fleet daily average breakeven and comparing favorably to market rates. Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter of 2021 amounted to $37.3 million.
Thanks to tight controls, average vessel daily operating expenses fell by 6% to $7,426 from $7,886, despite dry-docking expenses and costs related to travel difficulties incurred by crew due to Covid related restrictions, and the weakening US dollar.
Interest and finance costs were reduced as a result of debt reduction and lower margins on new loans or existing loans that were refinanced at more attractive rates and a $5 million positive move in bunker hedge valuations.
General and administrative expenses together with management fees were almost unchanged from the 2020 first quarter.
Depreciation and amortization combined remained at approximately $35.0 million.
By the end of the first quarter of 2021, TEN’s net debt to capital was at 50%.
RECENT EVENTS AND OTHER
In the first half of 2021, TEN successfully chartered all three of its LNG carriers to significant gas concerns with a duration ranging from twelve months to five years. The new charters will result to an additional $50 million in minimum annual revenues.
In May and June 2021, the Company sold three of its vessels, a 2003-built panamax product tanker and two 2005-built suezmaxes, and generated free cash, in excess of $20.5 million, after the repayment of related debt amounting to $32.3 million.
The Company’s fleet renewal program continues to be on target, regardless of the obstacles imposed by Covid-19 with our LNG “TENERGY” and DP2 shuttle tanker “PORTO”, to be delivered by South Korean yards.
DIVIDEND – COMMON SHARES
The Company will pay a dividend of $0.10 per common share on July 20, 2021, to shareholders of record as of July 14, 2021. Inclusive of this payment, TEN has paid common shareholders approximately half a billion dollars in dividends, equating to about $26 million per annum since its listing on the NYSE in 2002.
The Company’s ATM program for preferred and common shares has netted $18.5 million.
CORPORATE STRATEGY
The Company remains committed and at the forefront of structural, technical and environmental changes that our industry is facing, similar to actions taken following the OPA90 legislation, management is closely monitoring the changes of vessel hull and combustion through our Environment and Operations Committee and in close co-operation with our top clients. As TEN has proved over the recent past, fleet renewal remains high on its agenda.
In the meantime, the company is well positioned for the expected upturn in tanker market rates. The preservation of healthy cash reserves and debt reduction will be the principal drivers in safeguarding the Company’s balance sheet going forward.
“TEN is preparing itself for the rebound, expected to be similar to the one in the container and dry cargo markets. In the meantime, management is planning accretive long-term moves that will propel the Company into a new phase of development” Mr. George Saroglou, COO of TEN commented.
TEN Ltd Announces 24-Month Charter for Four Panamax Tankers
TEN, Ltd announced 24-month charters with profit sharing provisions for four LR1 product tankers to an oil concern. The combined minimum revenues from these contracts are expected to be around $40.0 million, excluding any additional revenue that may be generated from profit-sharing.
“These charters highlight our policy of flexible long-term contracts with first-class counterparties that on the one hand provide cash flow security while on the other preserve the Company’s ability to capture market upturns in strong freight environments,” Mr. George Saroglou, COO of TEN commented. “These contracts are a reflection of strong industry fundamentals as world economies restart and mirror the ones currently in evidence in the container and dry bulk sectors,” Mr. Saroglou concluded.
TEN Ltd. Reported Net Income of $59.2 Million
TEN, Ltd. (TEN) reports results (unaudited) for the fourth quarter and the year ended December 31, 2020.
FINANCIAL RESULTS FOR THE YEAR 2020
In 2020, TEN earned a net income of $59.2 million before non-cash charges of $35.2 million, compared to $42.7 million net income in 2019 excluding non-cash impairment charge of $27.6 million, a $16.5 million improvement on a year-to-year basis.
Voyage revenues rose to $644.1 million, a $46.7 million increase over 2019, despite the materially reduced global oil demand the pandemic created for most of 2020. In addition, and in view of this lackluster freight environment, TEN advanced nine of its vessels through their obligatory dry-dockings, so as to have them available for healthier charters once the markets rebound. Moreover, the Company is maintaining a significantly higher number of vessels in the spot market, compared to 2019, pending time charter rates to reflect the global economic turnaround a post-Covid-19 environment is expected to create. We are beginning to see signs of that forming in the first quarter and the Company is already taking advantage of that eventuality.
With still many vessels in the fleet operating in attractive time-charters, TEN managed a 94.2% utilization and an average daily TCE per vessel of $23,638 in 2020, an 11% improvement over the previous year. (Total revenues included a significant contribution from the two LNG carriers of $42.1 million.)
TEN achieved operating income of $96.7 million in 2020, compared to $85.9 million in 2019, a 12.6% increase, despite the turbulence the pandemic created to world economies.
Adjusted EBITDA increased to $267 million, $10.0 million higher than in 2019. The Company had a comfortable $172 million cash surplus at year-end after having redeemed all $50 million worth of Series C perpetual preferred stock, in similar fashion with the $50 million Series B perpetual preferred stock redemption a year earlier. A total $100 million preferred shares redemptions, from cash at hand, in a space of about 14 months, in addition to $161 million of scheduled debt repayments in 2020.
Voyage expenses were controlled to $145.3 million in 2020, despite the increased spot vessel activity.
Operating expenses decreased to $179.2 million from the 2019 level, despite a higher number of vessels in operation in 2020. On a daily average per vessel basis, operating expenses were $7,821 per day across our diversified fleet.
Total debt fell by a net $34.8 million despite raising $137 million of new loans, including predelivery financing, at competitive terms, relating to the delivery of our new buildings and our vessels under construction. We also took advantage of low interest rates to refinance loans at considerably better terms, resulting in an extra $43.4 million of cash being made available.
Interest and Finance costs in 2020 were down by $4.1 million from the 2019 level to $70.6 million due to a reduction in spreads and lower margins through various refinancing’s.
FOURTH QUARTER 2020 RESULTS
In the fourth quarter of 2020, the full impact of the economic lockdown was evident in the tanker rates. In view of the above, the Company brought forward the dry-docking of five vessels, originally scheduled for 2021, into the fourth quarter. Despite the weak market, the impact was mitigated by revenues generated by our vessels on fixed-time charter contracts, which allowed the Company to reach revenues of $131.6 million, an EBIDTA of $32.5 million, resulting to a net loss of $11.4 million before non-cash charges.
Total operating costs remained at the same level as the 2019 fourth quarter at $45.7 million, although five of our vessels underwent their scheduled drydocking in the fourth quarter of 2020, compared to only one vessel for the same period of 2019. Daily average operating costs per vessel increased by only $185 per day, due to the valued efforts of our technical managers who had also to adjust to the harsh conditions of the Covid-19 implications, relating to crew safety and repatriation expenses that had become very challenging in today’s environment.
G&A expenses remained the same at $7.2 million, and depreciation and amortization were slightly lower at $34.6 million due to vessels sold in the prior 2020 quarters.
Finance costs were at $9.2 million, down by $4.5 million from the 2019 fourth quarter due to reduced outstanding debt, lower interest rates and positive bunker hedge valuations.
Management remains confident, along with most of our peers, that the tight fundamentals relating to vessel supply, oil demand, oil production and inventories have started to re-align, resulting in stronger rates going forward. In quarter four, the Company successfully completed its four-vessel new building program to a renowned oil major with the delivery of two eco-designed Suezmax vessels, with a maximum of 10 years employment.
Dividend – Common Shares
The Company will pay a dividend of $0.10 per common share in June 2021. Inclusive of this payment, TEN has returned to common shareholders close to $500 million in total dividends since its listing on the NYSE in 2002.
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TEN Ltd. Declares Dividend on its Series F Cumulative Redeemable Perpetual Preferred Shares
TEN Ltd., a leading diversified crude, product and LNG tanker operator, yesterday announced that its Board of Directors declared the regular quarterly cash dividend of approximately $0.59375 per share for its Series F Cumulative Redeemable Perpetual Preferred Shares (the “Series F Preferred Shares”; NYSE: TNPPRF).
Each dividend of the Series F Preferred Shares is for the period from the most recent dividend payment date on October 30, 2020 through January 29, 2021.
The dividend on the Series F Preferred Shares will be paid on February 1, 2021 to all holders of record of Series F Preferred Shares as of January 27, 2021. Dividends on the Series F Preferred Shares are payable quarterly in arrears on the 30th day (unless the 30th falls on a weekend or public holiday, in which case the payment date is moved to the next business day) of January, April, July and October of each year, when, as and if declared by TEN’s board of directors. This is the 10th dividend on the Series F since their commencement of trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
TEN has 6,000,000 Series F Preferred Shares outstanding as of the date of this press release.
TEN Ltd Expects Strong Tanker Market Recovery After the Pandemic
TEN, Ltd. reported results (unaudited) for the quarter and nine months ended September 30, 2020.
NINE MONTHS 2020 SUMMARY RESULTS
TEN generated a net income of $70.6 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2020, before second-quarter 2020 reported non-cash charges of $16.5 million, compared to $2.0 million for the same nine-month period in 2019.
Gross revenues amounted to $512.5 million, a $90.4 million, or 21.4%, increase over the 2019 equivalent nine-month period, despite three vessels undergoing dry-docking for survey and upgrading purposes.
Adjusted EBITDA for the nine months ended September 30, 2020 increased to $234.1 million, $67.0 million higher from the same period in 2019.
Operating income, before non-cash items, totaled $133.3 million, a 130% increase from the 2019 equivalent nine-month period.
The average daily time charter equivalent (TCE) rate per vessel of the fleet increased by 27.4% to reach $25,351.
Fleet utilization for the first nine months of the year at a still strong 95.2% after increased dry-dockings and pandemic related operational obstacles.
On September 30, 2020, total cash reserves stood at $236.5 million.
Six tankers with an average age of 14.7 years were sold in the first half of 2020 generating about $37.5 million free cash after repaying nearly $61.0 million of related debt. Additionally, during the year, the Company has taken delivery of four environmentally friendly state of the art vessels, two suezmaxes and two aframaxes on minimum five-year contracts to an oil major with expected TCE-basis revenues of about $200 million. These transactions resulted in the reduction of the fleet’s average age by about three years and further enhanced its modern profile.
Vessel operating expenses were at $133.4 million, just under the operating expenses in the 2019 nine-month period with the same average number of vessels.
Average daily operating expenses per vessel in the 2020 first nine months also remained at a relatively stable level of $7,757.
Total finance costs remained steady at $61.0 million, almost exactly the level of the 2019 nine-month period, of which bank loan interest amounted to $35.4 million. A reduction of $18.5 million due to lower average outstanding debt, lower market interest rates and lower average margins in this nine-month period.
Total debt outstanding as of September 30, 2020 stood at $1.504 billion.
Q3 2020 SUMMARY RESULTS
In what is the seasonally slowest quarter, TEN’s net income for the three-month period that ended on September 30, 2020 reached $1.4 million compared to a net loss of $9.5 million in the same quarter of 2019. An $11.0 million positive turnaround.
Gross revenue generated by TEN’s vessels amounted to $142.8 million, 9% more than in the 2019 third quarter resulting to an EBITDA of $48.1 million.
Despite the additional pressure created by the global slow-down in demand due to the pandemic and the inevitable draw-down of global inventories, operating income increased by 29% from the 2019 third quarter to reach $15.1 million.
Average daily TCE rates per vessel increased to $20,451, compared to an average daily TCE per vessel of $18,837 in the 2019 third quarter.
Operating expenses of about $45.2 million were similar to those of the 2019 third quarter. Average daily opex per vessel at $7,927 increased modestly, due partly to a weakness in the US dollar, necessary dry-docking expenses and effects of the pandemic.
Finance and interest costs fell 39% to $13.5 million, due to a reduction in average debt outstanding between the two respective third quarters and a decrease in margins payable on several loans.
DIVIDEND – COMMON SHARES
The Company will pay a dividend of $0.1250 per common share on December 22, 2020 to shareholders of record as of December 16, 2020 bringing the total payments to holders of the common stock for 2020 to $0.50 per share on a reverse-split adjusted basis.
OTHER
Following the full redemption of the $50 million Series B Preferred shares in July 2019, at the end of October 2020 TEN also repaid, at par, its 8.875% $50 million Series C Preferred Shares and reduced its total preferred shares by $100 million.
Since the commencement of the TEN’s share buyback program in May 2020, the Company has acquired approximately $10 million worth of common shares representing over 5% of the total (reverse-split adjusted) shares outstanding.
CORPORATE STRATEGY & OUTLOO
As the rollercoaster year 2020 approaches to a close, a light glimmers at the end of the tunnel in the form of a vaccine that hopefully cures all.
In the meantime, TEN continues its steady course through these turbulent times.
The strong market at the start of the year gave us the opportunity to charter-out at accretive rates a number of our vessels operating in spot trades. At the same time, we sold six tankers with an average age of 14.7 years and replaced them with four brand new, purposely-built eco-designed vessels with solid long-term employment which will add $200 million, over 5 years, in TCE-basis revenues.
Concurrently, we took the opportunity of the distressed newbuilding prices to order two specialized vessels, one DP2 shuttle tanker and one LNG carrier, today both with long-term charter contracts.
Additionally, we have continued the reduction of our preferred securities and bank debt, whilst maintaining our uninterrupted dividend policy and strong cash reserves.
Looking forward, a normalization of the pandemic should revitalize world trade and materially increase oil demand, resulting in a stronger freight market. The historically low supply of tonnage currently in existence should assist in boosting rates and asset values significantly, providing better opportunities to divest our first-generation vessels and enhance profitability further.
In the meantime, we spare no effort in securing the well-being of our seafarers and thank them for their heroic efforts in maintaining our flawless operations and high utilization record in this unprecedented challenging environment.
We wish you all a SAFE Thanksgiving and better days ahead.
TEN Ltd. Reports Successful Delivery of Four-Vessel Series With Long-Term Employment to Oil Major
TEN, Ltd. (TEN) (NYSE: TNP) (the “Company”) today reported the delivery of the last vessel in a four-series newbuilding program, consisting of two suezmaxes and two aframaxes in South Korea, with five-year contracts to an oil major. The minimum Time-Charter Equivalent (“TCE”) revenues expected from these four purpose-built vessels over their minimum five-year employment is $200 million. The Company continues its current growth program with the construction of two vessels in the specialized shipping sectors, namely DP2 shuttle tankers and LNG, both with long term employment.
“We are delighted to have successfully completed this latest phase of our growth program ahead of schedule and our congratulations go to the yard for their commitment and professionalism during these challenging times with the global pandemic. The caliber of the charterer along with the duration of the contract is a testament of TEN’s standing as a premier international energy transporter and highlights the Company’s long-established industrial model,” Mr. George Saroglou, Chief Operating Officer of TEN stated. “With one DP2 suezmax shuttle tanker and one LNG carrier still under construction, we are looking forward to further expanding TEN’s operational reach beyond conventional sectors and offer investors wider latitude on the fleet’s earnings generation capabilities,” Mr. Saroglou completed.