Omega Navigation Enterprises Reports 3Q Results

Omega Navigation Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:ONAV, SGX: ONAV50), a provider of global marine transportation services focusing on product tankers, announced its financial and operational results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2007. The Company had previously announced the declaration of its quarterly cash dividend with respect to the third quarter of 2007 of $0.50 per share payable on November 30, 2007 to stockholders of record on November 15, 2007. Omega Navigation Enterprises, Inc. was incorporated in the Marshall Islands in February 2005. On April 7, 2006, the Company successfully completed its Initial Public Offering of 12,000,000 Class A Common Shares at $17 per share raising a total of $204m in gross proceeds. Omega Navigation’s Class A Common Shares commenced trading on the NASDAQ National Market on April 7, 2006 and on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited on April 10, 2006. For the quarter ended September 30, 2007, Omega Navigation reported total revenues from continuing and discontinued operations of $19.2m and Net Income of $4.5m, or $0.30 per share, excluding a non cash book gain on a revaluation of warrants issued as a partial payment for two newbuilding vessels which were delivered earlier this year and a non-cash book loss on its interest rate collar. Including these non cash items Net Income was $4.3m, or $0.28 per share. The calculations of the above basic earnings per share treat all outstanding shares as if they were a single class. EBITDA for the third quarter of 2007 was $ 14.9m. Net Income included $1.3m of revenues related to profit sharing on charters of the vessels Omega Lady Sarah, Omega Lady Miriam and Omega Theodore. Discontinued operations refer to the operation of the two dry bulk carriers that the Company agreed to sell in September 2006 and delivered on schedule to their new owners in January 2007. The Company owned and operated an average of 8 vessels during the third quarter of 2007 versus an average of 7.6 vessels during the third quarter of 2006. Excluding profit sharing, the Panamax product carriers earned an average time-charter equivalent rate of $25,047 per day per vessel during the third quarter of 2007, versus $25,110 during the third quarter of 2006. The Handymax product tankers earned an average time charter equivalent (excluding profit sharing) of $20,777 per vessel per day during the third quarter of 2007, versus an average time charter equivalent of $20,673 per day during the third quarter of 2006. Since the inception of the charters of the product tankers through the third quarter of 2007 the Company has received $3.9m of cash generated from profit sharing agreements. To date, the Company has recorded income of $3.4m (including $1.1m booked in the first quarter of 2007, $1m in the second quarter of 2007 and $1.3m in the third quarter of 2007). The Company expects to receive approximately an additional $1.3m in cash related to the profit sharing agreements and book to income approximately an additional $1.8m in subsequent quarters, for voyages performed to date. Operating expenses for the Handymax product tankers averaged $5,074 per day per vessel in the third quarter of 2007 versus $3,545 per day per vessel in the third quarter of 2006. The higher expense level in 2007 related to the timing of some purchases as well as repairs and purchases related to the supply of bunkers which included some additives which created minor damage. Panamax product tankers averaged operating expenses of $4,380 per day per vessel in the third quarter of 2007 versus $4,197 per day per vessel in the third quarter of 2006. The Panamax product tankers operated for only 336 days and the Handymax vessels operated for 181 days in the third quarter of 2006, versus 552 and 184 days, respectively, in the third quarter of 2007.