Sale and Acquisition of Suezmax Tankers - Ship Finance International Limited / Frontline Ltd.
May 19 2005 - 10:16AM
PR Newswire (US)
Sale and Acquisition of Suezmax Tankers - Ship Finance
International Limited / Frontline Ltd. HAMILTON, Bermuda, May 19
/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ship Finance International Limited (the
"Company") today announces the sale of the three Suezmax tankers,
Front Lillo, Front Emperor and Front Spirit, for a total
consideration of USD 92.0 million. The vessels will be delivered to
the buyers within the next two months. At the same time the time
charter arrangements between Ship Finance and Frontline Ltd.
("Frontline") will be cancelled. Concurrently, Frontline will sell
three similar vessels to Ship Finance for an aggregate price of USD
92.0 million. These vessels are the Suezmax tankers, Front
Traveller, Front Transporter and Front Target. Frontline will
charter back these vessels on similar terms to the contracts that
are being cancelled on the three vessels being sold by Ship
Finance. Chairman and CEO of Ship Finance, Tor Olav Troim says in a
comment: "Ship Finance will be secured the same cash flow through
the replacement of the vessels. We will benefit from the fact that
we already have four sister ships of these Croatian built vessels
in our fleet. The vessels have historically performed very well and
are built based on a specification of minimal use of high tensile
steel. The vessels are also particularly well designed to be used
for conversion to offshore vessels in order to secure commercial
life after they will have to stop trading as tankers." CFO of
Frontline Tom Jebsen says in a comment: "Frontline bought the three
vessels which are being sold to Ship Finance last year for USD 66
million. We have incurred significant expenditure on upgrading the
vessels, but have also made substantial money on trading them."
"The third party sale and subsequent cancellation of the charter of
the three Spanish built Suezmaxes should be seen as a part of the
Frontline Group's strategy to renew its fleet over time through
opportunistic trading in the S&P market." Questions should be
directed to: Contact: Tor Olav Troim: Director, Frontline Ltd +44
7734 976 575 Oscar Spieler: Chief Executive Officer, Frontline
Management AS +47 23 11 40 00 Tom Jebsen, Chief Financial Officer,
Frontline Management AS +47 23 11 40 00 DATASOURCE: Ship Finance
International Ltd. CONTACT: Tor Olav Troim, Director, Frontline
Ltd, +44-7734-976-575, Oscar Spieler, Chief Executive Officer,
Frontline Management AS, +47-23-11-40-00, Tom Jebsen, Chief
Financial Officer, Frontline Management AS, +47-23-11-40-00 Web
site: http://www.shipfinance.org/
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