Osprey Maritime News

The Board of Northern Offshore met on May 13th to discuss the company's financial situation. As stated in the company's fourth quarter report the company will need additional financing in order to meet its required short term principal and interest obligations. Total scheduled payments during the next three months include $ 7 million in U.S. Bond interest, $ 11 million in scheduled repayment of the Avalon debt financing, and $ 17 million in repayment of two different loans related to the Energy Searcher. A portion of the payment obligation under the Avalon loan and one of the Energy Searcher loans are already past due, but the Board has negotiated a short-term extension of these repayment obligations. The company currently has a cash position of approximately $ 4 million.

Osprey Maritime Ltd. reportedly reached an agreement with its bankers for an extension of a portion of its loans, currently totaling $370 million.

Two major clean oil product tanker operators will form a vessel pool to market each others ships on opposite sides of the world. Japan's NYK Line and International Product Tankers Ltd. (IPC), a joint venture company formed by OMI Corp. and Osprey Maritime Ltd., said the agreement would cut costs and improve services. Under the agreement, IPC will market NYK's fleet of product tankers to European and U.S. customers when positioned in European or Atlantic waters. NYK will market IPC's fleet of product tankers to customers in Japan and South Korea. IPC operates a fleet of 30 ships of 1.1 million dwt. NYK is one of the world's leading shipping companies operating more than 500 ships in all areas of shipping.

MarineSafety International Rotterdam b.v. (MSR) recently successfully completed the first of a series of four training courses for Point Fortin sponsored by Atlantic LNG Trinidad and Tobago. This Interactive Pilot-Tug-Master training for the Trinidad Pilots & Berthing Master Association, the tug masters of Plipwijs, and various masters of LNG carriers calling at Point Fortin, lasted five days. The major portion of the course was related to all aspects of safely piloting the LNG carriers Norman Lady, Matthew and Methane Arctic, loaded, as well as ballasted, in and out of Trinidad's LNG port under difficult circumstances. Special attention was given to tug assistance when operating an Azimuth Stern Drive (ASD) tug.

Airline chief Stelios Haji-Ioannou's tanker company Stelmar has abandoned its bid for the First International fleet of clean tankers and is now reportedly considering those of Singapore-listed Osprey Maritime, Reuters reported. "Stelmar is looking at the Osprey ships, because the deal with First International is now looking too messy and too time-consuming," a New York-based source told Reuters. Stelmar's London office declined to comment. Shipping magnate John Fredriksen, whose World Shipholding Group holds a 54 percent stake in Osprey, announced in late December that he planned to sell off Osprey's 14 clean tankers to generate cash to invest in gas carriers. The source said that U.S.

Airline chief Stelios Haji-Ioannou's tanker company Stelmar has abandoned its bid for the First International fleet of clean tankers and is now reportedly considering those of Singapore-listed Osprey Maritime, Reuters reported. "Stelmar is looking at the Osprey ships, because the deal with First International is now looking too messy and too time-consuming," a New York-based source told Reuters. Stelmar's London office declined to comment. Shipping magnate John Fredriksen, whose World Shipholding Group holds a 54 percent stake in Osprey, announced in late December that he planned to sell off Osprey's 14 clean tankers to generate cash to invest in gas carriers. The source said that U.S.

Osprey Maritime Ltd., in the middle of being taken over by Norwegian shipping magnate John Fredriksen, reported a sharp earnings turnaround on Wednesday, suggesting to analysts that Fredriksen had got a good bargain. The Singaporean energy transportation firm, which used to be controlled by a group of Indonesians including Bambang Trihatmodjo, son of former President Suharto, said it expected to report group attributable net profit for the whole year of at least $ 37 million. Last year it lost $191 million, mainly due to a hefty write-down in the value of its fleet of vessels at the bottom of the tanker cycle. Analysts said the profit forecast beat their expectations and showed that Osprey was enjoying a strong turnaround on the back of a rapid rise in tanker rates this year.

Oil transportation giant World Shipholding Group bought another 523,000 shares in Singapore's Osprey Maritime Ltd, marginally increasing its stake to 53.08 percent. In a statement to the Singapore Exchange, World Shipholding said the Osprey shares -- representing 0.155 percent of the energy transportation group -- were bought in the open market at $1 each. Osprey shares were unchanged at $0.99 when they were last traded on Monday. World Shipholding, amassed 52.93 percent in Osprey from various parties between August and November 28. On December 4, the group made a formal bid of $1 per share for the stake it did not already own after breaching Singapore's takeover trigger of 25 percent.

Norway's John Fredriksen raised his offer price for Singapore's Osprey Maritime by 12.5 percent in a move seen likely to result in a management change and possible de-listing of the group. Fredriksen, through his privately held World Shipholding Ltd., lifted his offer from S$1.00 to S$1.125 per share for the 38.85 percent of the tanker group he does not already own. Osprey shares ended up 11 percent at S$1.11 after hitting a high of S$1.16. Volume was thin at 660,000 shares. After the market close, the firm announced that its board member Charles Klotz had resigned effective January 10. It did not give a reason. The higher offer comes after criticism from Osprey management that World's initial offer undervalued the company.

India's Petronet LNG will seek fresh price bids from the four consortia left in the race for a contract to ship liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar to a terminal at west coast Dahej. "Technical bids have been opened and deviations are being sorted out. Once that is over, fresh price bids would be asked from the four," the official, who did not want to be identified, told Reuters. He said the deadline for selecting the shippers is March 31. Of the eight consortia which were pre-qualified after global competitive bidding, only four submitted technical and price bids. * Indian Oil Corp., Exmar of Belgium and Great Eastern Shipping Co. Ltd. * Essar Shipping and Malaysia International Shipping Corp.

World Shipholding Ltd has acquired another 0.11 percent of Osprey Maritime Ltd, bringing its total stake in the Singapore group to 73.74 percent, Reuters reported. World, a private company controlled by Norweigian shipping magnate John Fredriksen, sweetened its offer price for Osprey two weeks ago from S$1.00 to S$1.125 per share. Osprey shares were steady at S$1.12 on thin volume at midday on Tuesday. World said in a statement to the Singapore Exchange it had bought 389,000 Osprey shares in the open market on Monday at S$1.12 per share.

Osprey Maritime Ltd. agreed to sell 10 product tankers to Greek shipping company Stelmar Shipping Ltd. for $216 million. Osprey said that this is in line with its revised strategy of focusing on the ownership and operation of LNG carriers. Athens-based Stelmar was set up in 1992 by Haji-Ioannou, owner of cutprice airline easyJet. Separately, Osprey said it had also agreed to sell another tanker to U.S. OMI Corp. for $14 million. OMI will fund the purchase via cash of $7.7 million and an issue of 900,000 OMI shares at $7.00 each, which amounts to $6.3 million, Osprey said. Shipping magnate John Fredriksen, whose World Shipholding Group now holds a 91 percent stake in Osprey…

Airline chief Stelios Haji-Ioannou's tanker company Stelmar has agreed to pay $212.5 million for the bulk of the clean tanker fleet of Singapore-listed Osprey Maritime, Reuters reported on Wednesday. Neither company was able to comment. Brokers said Stelmar, set up in 1992 by Haji-Ioannou, owner of cut price airline easy Jet, will take four double-hulled 1990s-built tankers of 46,000 tons and six slightly older and smaller single-hulled vessels in a deal that will double Stelmar's fleet size. The deal is subject to final Stelmar board approval, they added. A spokesman at Stelmar's Greek office said that because it was seeking a stock market listing, the company was prevented from commenting. Osprey company officials were unavailable for comment. U.S.

World Shipholding Ltd. acquired about 91.32 percent of the shares in Singapore's Osprey Maritime Ltd. as of the close of its cash offer on Monday. According to Singapore Exchange rules, World now has the discretion to suspend the listing of Osprey's shares after accumulating more than 90 percent of the issued and paid-up ordinary share capital.

Greek shipping company Stelmar Shipping Ltd. has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to sell 7 million common shares at $12 to $14 per share. The Athens-based company, which owns and operates oil and products tankers, said it plans to use the proceeds of the offering to partly fund its purchase of 10 Handymax tankers from Osprey Maritime Ltd. The lead manager for the offering is Jefferies & Co, Stelmar said.

Tanker operator Stelmar Shipping said it was ready to revive talks with Bermuda-based First International to buy six petroleum tankers once the latter is free of an ownership dispute. "Yes, we're there to talk again, and would be interested in talking again for sure," a top Stelmar official said. Stelmar and First International reached a $140 million deal for the ships last year but it fell through in October when First International became embroiled in a bitter legal dispute with a minor lender. The tanker fleet has since become ensnared in a fresh dispute, this time between First International and bondholders, which provided most of the $257 million to build the fleet.

The world's top shipping magnate John Fredriksen is close to solving a dispute with British utility BG Group and could soon see increased earnings for four of his ships, shipping sources said. "Their differences have been resolved and they've reached an agreement, but that still hasn't been finalized," said an LNG industry source. The dispute first became public last month when Norwegian Golar LNG, in which Fredriksen has a half share, said it might be considering legal action against the New York broker that fixed the four Golar ships into the barely profitable deal with BG. Both Golar and BG declined to comment on the rumor of a resolution, but other LNG industry sources said there had been a "re-organization of rates," and the deal could be completed within weeks.

Shipping magnate John Fredriksen is Norway's richest man, his tanker company Frontline is the world's biggest, and now his week-old gas transport venture Golar LNG has already dwarfed all competitors. Golar LNG raised $280 million in a private placement last week to fund the acquistion of six highly-prized Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) tankers from another Fredriksen company Osprey Maritime. But the acquisitions are not yet over, said Tor Olav Troim, Fredriksen's right-hand-man both at Frontline and Golar. Troim said the money raised last week would also go towards a down-payment on two more LNG tankers to be built at both Daewoo and Hyundai in South Korea, and possibly more at other yards.

Two major clean oil product tanker operators will reportedly form a vessel pool to market each other's ships on opposite sides of the world. Japan's NYK Line and International Product Tankers Ltd. (IPC), a joint venture company formed by OMI Corp. and Osprey Maritime Ltd., said the agreement would cut costs and improve services. Under the agreement, IPC will market NYK's fleet of product tankers to European and U.S. customers when positioned in European or Atlantic waters. NYK will market IPC's fleet of product tankers to customers in Japan and South Korea.

Marine and chartering services provider Osprey Maritime Ltd said on Friday it will be de-listed from the Singapore Exchange on May 15 following its acquisition by World Shipholding Group owned by Norwegian magnate John Fredriksen. Company officials said that after a public tender, World Shipholding now owned about 98.6 percent of the firm's existing share capital and a de-listing was necessitated as it was not feasible to restore a minimal free float.

A group of leading shipowners are pooling their large oil tankers in a move to offer customers "one-stop shopping," officials of the newly-formed Tankers International said, adding that the fragmented nature of the business has required that owners consolidate to become more flexible. Shipping analysts say the creation of a 38-strong fleet may strengthen a negotiating position and could help achieve of higher charter rates. However, Tankers International officials said their focus will be more on cutting operational costs than on rates. Rates for oil tankers are currently low and in some cases daily returns have fallen below break-even for modern vessels. Ample tonnage and high bunker costs have also taken their toll on ship earnings.

The shiprepair yard of IZAR Ferrol surpassed previous occupancy records recently, as it simultaneously worked on eight vessels. The yard facilities were fully busy and there was no room to accommodate any other vessels at the yard's two drydocks (of 1,083 x 164 ft. [330 x 50 m] and 673 x 82 ft. [205 x 25 m]) and 5,577 ft. (1,700 m) long quays. One of the vessels, a tanker owned by Spain’s CLH, is the first example of the cooperation capacity between the repair yards of Ferrol and Fene (the former Astano), now part of IZAR since the company took over the facilities of Bazan and AESA. The repair order for the crude oil carrier was awarded to Ferrol, but the vessel had to be docked at Fene due to the high occupancy of Ferrol facilities.

Norwegian shipping magnate John Fredriksen's Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) transport company Golar LNG said on Friday it raised $280 million in a private placement and planned to list in Oslo and later this year in New York. The company, which will become the first pure LNG transport company to be listed, said it had issued 56 million shares at $5 each in the placement and that Fredriksen had taken a 50 percent stake in the firm. "We sold 140 (million dollars worth) externally and John took 140 (million dollars worth)," Golar LNG director Tor Olav Troim said. Oslo investment banks Fearnleys and Orkla managed the placement of the 28 million shares with private investors.