Ship Finance International Limited (NYSE:SFL) has announced the sale of its offshore supply vessel known as “Sea Bear”.
The company announced that the deal will bring in about $20 million. However, it did not disclose any details about the buyer though it is an isolated third party. Sea Bear was built in 1999 and its sale is in line with a deal to bring an end to the corresponding contract with one of the branches of Deep Sea Supply Plc. The vessel will be handed over to the buyer before the beginning of the second quarter of 2016.
The gains that SFL will receive from the deal will be in form of amortizing notes and cash sales from Deep Sea as payment for the termination of the contract. The notes will have a 6 years tenor and will also be unsecured notes whose interest rate will be 7.25%. SFL also revealed that it anticipates an impairment of roughly $8 million for the fourth quarter of the previous year.
The company also added that selling the vessel was in line with its plan to diversify and renew its OSV fleet. It plans is to dispose of the older vessels. SFL will have five vessels once the sale is complete. The remaining ships are all part of long term contracts with Deep Sea Supply.
Ship Finance International has an untarnished record in the Offshore and Maritime Industry. The company’s shares have been relatively stable since 2004 due to the constant profits and as a result, dividends have been paid out every quarter since then. The company’s diversified portfolio consists of offshore assets, container vessels, bulkers and tankers. Altogether they are a total of 70 vessels.
The company’s long term distribution capacity is the result of a good mix of asset base growth as well as its long term contracts. The company recently released its forward looking statements but warned that there might be some disparity with the actual results due to some market factors.