ST. HELIER, Channel Islands, Dec 01, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — DHT Maritime, Inc. (“DHT”) (NYSE:DHT) today announced that it has reached an agreement with Overseas Shipholding Group (“OSG”) whereby OSG has declared part of the extension options for the seven vessels on time charter from DHT upon expiry of the vessels current initial charter periods.
The declared extensions increase DHT’s fixed charter coverage from an average of 3.7 years to 4.6 years for the total fleet of 9 vessels. The charter extensions for the seven vessels provide additional certainty and stability to the Company’s cash flow in a period of most uncertain economic environment. The contracted fixed charter hire revenues for the Company will increase by a minimum $70 million to about $400 million as a result of the extensions.
For two of the vessels, Overseas Ania and Overseas Rebecca, with current initial charter periods ending in October 2010, OSG has declared the options for a period of 18 months at the base rate.
For the five vessels, Overseas Cathy, Overseas Sophie, Overseas Ann, Overseas Chris, and Overseas Regal, with current initial charter periods ending between April 2011 and April 2012, OSG has declared the options for a period of 12 months. The base rate for the extension periods will be either the base rate stipulated in the charter parties or, if the one year time charter rate is lower, a base rate which is no more than $5,000 per day below the base rate stipulated in the charter parties.
The profit sharing arrangement, whereby DHT earns an additional amount equal to 40% of the excess of vessels’ actual net daily earnings, will remain in place for all vessels.
Tankers Management Limited, the technical manager since IPO in October 2005, will perform technical management on market terms for the seven vessels from January 2009.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains assumptions, expectations, projections, intentions and beliefs about future events, in particular regarding daily charter rates, vessel utilization, the future number of newbuildings, 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 are intended as “forward-looking statements.” All statements in this document that are not statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements.
The forward-looking statements included in this press release reflect DHT’s current views with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. We caution that assumptions, expectations, projections, intentions and beliefs about future events may and often do vary from actual results and the differences can be material. The reasons for this include the risks, uncertainties and factors described under the section of our latest annual report on Form 20-F entitled “Risk Factors,” a copy of which is available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. These include the risk that DHT may not be able to pay dividends; the highly cyclical nature of the tanker industry; global demand for oil and oil products; the number of newbuilding deliveries and the scrapping rate of older vessels; the risks associated with acquiring additional vessels; changes in trading patterns for particular commodities significantly impacting overall tonnage requirements; risks related to terrorist attacks and international hostilities; expectations about the availability of insurance; our ability to repay our credit facility or obtain additional financing; our ability to find replacement charters for our vessels when their current charters expire; compliance costs with environmental laws and regulations; risks incident to vessel operation, including discharge of pollutants; and unanticipated changes in laws and regulations.
Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in the forward-looking statements included in this press release. DHT does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements.
SOURCE: DHT Maritime, Inc.
DHT Maritime, Inc.
CFO
Eirik Uboe, +44 1534 639 759
Mobile: +47 412 92 712
info@dhtankers.com and eu@tankersservices.com