Arlington Tankers announced that the Company has entered into an agreement to acquire two modern 47,000 deadweight ton double-hulled product tankers from the Stena Group for an aggregate purchase price of $92 million in cash. The new vessels, Stena Contest and Stena Concept, were built
in 2005. Arlington expects to take delivery of the vessels in January 2006.
In conjunction with the purchase, Arlington will enter into fixed rate
charter hire agreements with Stena Bulk AB for both vessels. The charters will
be for an initial period of three years, at a rate commencing at $19,765 per
day for the first year, $20,043 per day for the second year, and $20,335 per
day for the third year. There is no additional hire provision during the
initial three year period. At the end of the three year period both Arlington
and
Stena Bulk will have the option to extend the charters for an additional
30 months.
Arlington will also enter into vessel management agreements for both
vessels with Northern Marine Management Ltd. for the term of the charters, at
fixed rates commencing at $5,565 per day and increasing at 5% per year.
Northern Marine Management Ltd. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Stena Group.
These management agreements will be on substantially similar terms as the
management agreements that Arlington now has in place for its existing six
vessels.