Osprey Maritime Ltd News

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.

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.

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…

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.

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.

Osprey Maritime Ltd. reported poor interim results, and announced that the second half would be difficult due to pressure on charter rates. The outlook for Osprey, which has a total debt of $813.7 million as of the end of June 1999, also hinged on the outcome of talks with bankers to extend its short term loans of $370.4 million. The loans were originally repayable on July 20, 1999. The debt was incurred following its multi-million acquisition of Gotaas Larsen Shipping Corp. in 1997. For the six months ended in June, the group saw a 73 percent dive in earnings to $840,000 from $3.9 million previously, after taking into consideration the preference share dividends. Turnover also fell 14 percent to $98.43 million from $114.77 million.

Standard & Poor's said the credit quality of shipping companies across Southeast Asia has suffered in the last two years, with most companies in the "weak to vulnerable" range, compared with "fair to weak" previously. "Earnings vulnerability and aggressive capital structures, characterized by modest and volatile cash flows and high debt levels, have strained the ability of many companies to meet financial obligations in a timely manner," shipping analyst Ee-Lin Tan said. Tan said underpinning the deterioration were limited geographic diversity and exposure to regional trade flows, intense price-based competition led by lower cargo traffic in certain trade routes and excess capacity within several shipping segments.

Shipping group Osprey Maritime Ltd. plans a proposed $70 million injection of new equity together with a major restructuring, a company spokesperson reported. The company has received an offer from Schroder Partners Asia Ltd., advisers to the Schroder Venture Partners Asia Pacific Fund, to invest about $54 million by means of a placement and rights issue. The Schroder Fund would subscribe for new ordinary shares equal to about 20 percent of the company at a price of S$0.35 a share, which would raise about $14 million. In conjunction with the placement, the company would have a 2-for-3 rights issue also at the same price.