The executive committee of Euronav NV reported its financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2006. The company had net income of $93.5 million (2005: $80.8 million) or $1.78 (2005: $1.92) per share, for the three months ended March 31, 2006. This is the highest result for a first quarter ever. EBITDA for the same period was $141.3 million (2005: $98.7 million).
The average daily time charter equivalent rates, or TCE, obtained by the company’s owned fleet in the Tankers International pool was approximately $82,500/day.
In the first quarter 2006, Euronav also announced that it signed a contract with Hyundai Heavy Industries Co, Ltd (HHI) of Korea to build two 318,000 dwt Very Large Crude Carriers to be delivered in the first quarter of 2009. In accordance with the company’s strategy to have part of its fleet on long
term time charter contracts, Euronav also made an agreement to fix out a Suezmax for a period of three years, starting in November 2006, increasing therefore the cover ratio from that moment onwards.