HAMILTON, BERMUDA, January 9, 2017 – DHT Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:DHT) (“DHT”). It is DHT’s policy to inspect all newbuildings, including underwater areas, during their respective warranty periods. During such routine inspection of the DHT Jaguar, a fracture surrounding the inspection window of the rudder was identified. Following a root cause analysis conducted by the builder Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) and classification society American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), DHT implemented a permanent repair plan for a rudder design improvement on the DHT Jaguar and its sister ships. DHT has completed the work and has in relation to this incurred 105 off-hire days during the fourth quarter of 2016, equaling to about 5% of its trading days during the same period. The repair cost has been covered by HHI under its warranty obligation.
DHT agreed with HHI to defer the delivery of its final newbuilding originally scheduled for delivery during the fourth quarter of 2016. The vessel, which will be named DHT Tiger, will be delivered during January 2017 at no additional cost to DHT, positively impacting her value.
DHT is also taking this opportunity to update on its VLCC spot trading. The spot earnings for the fourth quarter of 2016 came in at $34,300 per day. DHT has to date booked 32% of its first quarter 2017 VLCC spot days at an average rate of $53,000 per day.
Further, during the fourth quarter the company has under its buy-back program repurchased $23 million of its convertible senior notes in the open market at an average price of 90.4%. Including repurchases made during the first half of 2016, the company has during 2016 repurchased $27 million at an average price of 91.7%. At the current conversion price of $6.6570, the company has reduced the potential dilution related to the convertible notes by 4,055,880 shares, equal to about 4% based on the current outstanding share count.
About DHT Holdings, Inc.
DHT is an independent crude oil tanker company. Our fleet trades internationally and consists of crude oil tankers in the VLCC and Aframax segments. We operate through our integrated management companies in Oslo, Norway and Singapore. You shall recognize us by our business approach with an experienced organization with focus on first rate operations and customer service, quality ships built at quality shipyards, prudent capital structure with robust cash break even levels to accommodate staying power through the business cycles, a combination of market exposure and fixed income contracts for our fleet and a transparent corporate structure maintaining a high level of integrity and good governance. For further information: www.dhtankers.com.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements and information relating to the Company that are based on beliefs of the Company’s management as well as assumptions, expectations, projections, intentions and beliefs about future events, in particular regarding dividends (including our dividend plans, timing and the amount and growth of any dividends), daily charter rates, vessel utilization, the future number of newbuilding deliveries, oil prices and seasonal fluctuations in vessel supply and demand. When used in this document, words such as “believe,” “intend,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “project,” “forecast,” “plan,” “potential,” “will,” “may,” “should” and “expect” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements but are not the exclusive means of identifying such statements. These statements reflect the Company’s current views with respect to future events and are based on assumptions and subject to risks and uncertainties. Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements represent the Company’s estimates and assumptions only as of the date of this press release and are not intended to give any assurance as to future results. For a detailed discussion of the risk factors that might cause future results to differ, please refer to the Company’s Annual Report on Form 20-F, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 21, 2016.
The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements contained in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the forward-looking events discussed in this press release might not occur, and the Company’s actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements.
CONTACT:
Eirik Ubøe, CFO
Phone: +1 441 299 4912 and +47 412 92 712
E-mail: eu@dhtankers.com