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www.fairplay.co.uk

SINGAPORE’S SHIPPING trusts are confident of weathering the downturn that has begun to hit shipping.

“We sit back, dip into our debt facility and ride this through,” said Thomas Preben Hansen, CEO of Rickmers Trust Management, which manages Rickmers Maritime backed by German shipowner Bertram R C Rickmers.

“Disappointing growth figures out of Europe and the US do not keep me awake at night,” Hansen told Fairplay.

That is because nine of the 11 ships coming on are fully financed by debt. The downturn, if it hits hard, will affect only a limited number of the Trust’s ships.

And when the market is down, Hansen is looking to buy what he calls “distress sales” from cash generated by big ships chartered out to big players.

“The market can do whatever it wants to do in the next five years,” said Hansen.

“If the market comes crashing down it brings opportunities to buy cheaper assets while my existing fleet is generating cash.”

Rickmers Maritime, which listed in Singapore in May last year, owns and operates its fleet of large container ships under long-term fixed rate charter contracts to leading container liner shipping companies.

From an initial contracted fleet of 10 container ships in the range of 3,450-5,060teu, the profile has grown rapidly. An additional 13 vessels, four of them of 13,100teu, have been contracted.

Fleet capacity will expand to 131,560teu once all 13 vessels are delivered by end 2010.


The four mega box ships have already been contracted to Maersk.

Charterers in the Trust’s portfolio include Evergreen group’s Italia Maritima, CMA CGM, Hanjin Shipping and Mitsui OSK Lines.

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Four of Rickmers' box ships have been contracted to Maersk. Photo by Sim Kih

Singapore’s two other business trusts do not appear to be too worried either.

Pacific Shipping Trust, sponsored by container shipping operator Pacific Shipping Lines, has completed raising S$113.7 million from a preferential offering – although the sponsor had to mop up unsubscribed units to the tune of 144,525,240.

In total, 252,750,000 new units will be issued pursuant to the offer.

The financial turmoil impacted the issue directly as the unit price dropped below the offer price of S$0.45.

The new offering, however, had received overwhelming endorsement earlier from unit holders, which PST Management CEO Alvin Cheng sees as a strong vote of confidence for the trust’s “prudent capital and risk management strategies.”

With extra cash in its bag the PST now has the capital cushion to grow its fleet and diversify its client base.

First Ship Lease Trust has the most diversified fleet profile of the three.

Despite the financial crisis, it has managed to obtain an additional revolving credit facility of up to US$65 million on top of an existing US$450 million arrangement.

With the finance tied for an additional ship, FSL Trust Management is providing a distribution per unit guidance of 3.08 US cents for 4Q08, which is higher than 3Q08's DPU of 3.05 US cents.

Commenting on this, Philip Clausius, President and CEO of FSL Trust Management, said: “Given the current volatility in the capital markets and our conservative business model with long-term secured cash-flows, no unfunded commitments and no near-term refinancing risks, we think this is an extraordinary risk-adjusted rate of return.”


Article is reproduced by courtesy of Fairplay, an international shipping weekly.

 

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#1 othman hajjouz 2012-05-29 02:14
vacancy to work
i work as master since 1995
CURRICULUM VITAE

Name: OTHMAN MUSTAFA HAJJOU Z
Nationality: SYRIAN
Date of birth: 14.07.1970

ADDRESS:
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Objective:

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- 2ND OFF APRIL 1992
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• MASTER FROM JULY 2006
• renew my certificate at 29.12.2010 exp 31.10.2015

Education:

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Last Position: MASTER IN BULK CARRIER SHIP GROSS TONNAGE 9669

Graduation Projects: 10.07.2006

• THE BASIC CRITERIA OF CLASSIFICATIONS SOCIETIES WITH RELATION TO HAZARD AT SEA.

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SEA SERVICE RECORD:

VESSEL TYPE D.W.T SIGN ON SIGN OFF RANK
m/v: Supper carrier container 605tu 11750 10.09.2006 06.02.2007 master
M.V : p.m spiridon Live stock 02.04.2007 23.09.2007 Master
M.V: SIBA.M LOOGS CARRIER 11720 07.10.2007 28.12.2007 master
m/v: zaher 3 Live stock 14.01.2008 19.06.2008 master
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M/V: TINA 2 GENERAL 14600 10.01.2009 26.05.2009 Master
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M/V:LADY NARIMAN BULK 18750 15.02.2010 22.05.2010 Master
M/V: ASRA-Y BULK 15 775 11.01.2011 02.06.2011 Mast er
 

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