Rickmers Maritime

Rickmers Maritime: FY13 net profit fell 15% to US$23.5m, while revenue was shaved 1% to US$143.5m. 4Q13 net loss was US$8m vs a net profit of US$2.2m in 4Q12. Topline saw no growth at US$36.4m. Bottomline was heavily weighed by goodwill impairment of US$18.4m for 3 vessel owning subsidiaries, and US$2.4m impairment for the vessel Kaethe C. Rickmers. This was slightly offset by the reduction of finance expenses from reduction of outstanding loans. Excluding effects of impairment, 4Q13 profit would have been US$12.7m (4Q12: US$8.8m on a like for like basis). Management guided that charter rates and vessel values are only expected to begin recovering in late 2014, a result of supply of new ships growing at a faster clip than demand and scrapping. Rickmers presently has US$338.7m of secured revenue with latest charter expiry in 2019. The fleet is 85% employed for 2014, with majority till 2015. NAV at end Dec was US$0.62, translating to P/B of 0.6x Quarterly DPS of US0.60¢ declared, bringing full year payout to US2.40¢