28 August 2018 – Hamilton, Bermuda
Flex LNG Limited. (Oslo Børs: FLNG) (together with its subsidiaries, the “Company” or “Flex LNG”), an emerging leader in the Liquefied Natural Gas (“LNG”) shipping, today reports unaudited results for the three and six months ended 30 June 2018.
Highlights for Second Quarter of 2018:
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On 18 April 2018 Flex LNG entered into a 12 months time-charter agreement with Enel Trade S.p.A. (“Enel”). The time charter period of 12 months will commence during the second half of 2019. Enel also has the option to extend the contract by an additional 12 months subsequent to the firm period.
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On 28 May 2018, Flex LNG received credit approval for a sale-leaseback (“Rainbow SLB)”) of the LNGC newbuilding Flex Rainbow with an Asian lessor based on term sheet signed by the parties 20 March 2018. The sale price under the lease is approx. 75% of the relevant ship building price for Flex Rainbow and where the remaining 25% represent the advance hire for the ten year lease period.
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On 28 May 2018 Flex LNG entered into an agreement to acquire two 174,000 CBM LNGC newbuildings fitted with low pressure two stroke engines (X-DF) under construction at HHI for an attractive price of $184 million each vessel which includes building supervision. Payment terms are favorable with 20 per cent due following signing of the purchase agreement with remaining 80 per cent payable at delivery. Seller is funding part of pre-delivery capex which illustrates commitment and support of the largest shareholder.
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On 22 June 2018 Flex LNG successfully took delivery of its third LNGC newbuildings the Flex Ranger from Samsung Heavy Industries (“SHI”) in South Korea.
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Reported Revenues for the second quarter 2018 of $7.0 million compared to $8.0 million in second quarter 2017 and for the first half of 2018 $22.1 million compared to $9.7 million for first half of 2017.
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Reported a positive EBITDA of $3 million compared to a negative EBITDA of $7.4 million in second quarter 2017. The EBITDA for the first half of 2018 was $5.4 million compared to a negative EBITDA for first half of 2017 of $9.8 million.
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Reported Net Loss for the second quarter and the first half of 2018 of $2.9 million and $4.6 million respectively, compared to a Net Loss in second quarter and first half of 2017 of $ 6.7 million and $7.6 million respectively.
Subsequent Events:
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On 9 July 2018, the Company took delivery of Flex Rainbow from Samsung Heavy Industries according to schedule. The Flex Rainbow is the Company’s fourth LNGC on the water while four LNGCs are currently under construction. Flex Rainbow is a large state-of-the-art 174,000 cbm LNG carrier with fifth generation ME-GI machinery giving considerable fuel savings compared to traditional LNG carriers.
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On 12 July 2018 Flex Rainbow entered into a 6+3 months Time Charter with a major European energy company following mobilization at yard in South Korea.
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On 12 July 2018 the Company announced that it has executed the Rainbow Sale and Lease Back (SLB) which was announced in connection with the first quarterly presentation, 29 May 2018. The acquisition of the two LNG carrier newbuildings with X-DF machinery from an affiliate of the Company’s largest shareholder, Geveran Trading & Co Ltd (“Geveran”), announced on 29 May 2018 was subject to final documentation and execution of the Rainbow SLB.
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On 1 August 2018, the Company announced the appointment of Øystein M. Kalleklev as Chief Executive Officer of Flex LNG Management AS, the main management company of Company. Mr. Kalleklev will also serve as Chief Financial Officer until a suitable candidate has been recruited to this position.
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On 1 August 2018 Marius Foss also joined the Company as Head of Commercial and Operations. With these changes the Board has increase its focus on building a strong team around the Company’s modern LNGC fleet, and given the market outlook, transportation of LNG will be the Company’s main focus going forward.
Øystein M Kalleklev, CEO/CFO commented:
“During the first half of 2018, Flex LNG delivered unsatisfactory financial results due to disappointing utilization of Flex Enterprise which has operated in the spot market in this period. As we are in the start-up phase, one idle vessel makes a big impact on our financial accounts. We are however making good progress on building a very substantial LNG shipping company based on large modern fuel efficient LNG carriers which we are very confident will be the preferred vessels in the increasing market for seaborne transportation of LNG. As we remain confident that the market will become tighter going forward we do expect that our financial performance will improve given the fact that we are well positioned with our current fleet of modern LNG carriers.”
In connection with the earnings release, a webcast and conference call will be held at 09:00 a.m. CEST. In order to attend the webcast and/or conference call you may do one of the following:
Attend by Webcast:
Use to the follow link prior to the webcast: https://edge.media-server.com/m6/p/wqq76av7
Attend by Conference Call:
Applicable dial-in telephone numbers are as follows:
Norway: +47 2100 2610
United Kingdom: +44 (0)330 336 9127
United States: +1 929-477-0448
Confirmation Code: 5182832
Participants will be asked for their full name & Conference ID. Q&A session will be held after the Webcast/teleconference.
A Q&A session will be held after the teleconference/webcast. Information on how to submit questions will be given at the beginning of the session. The presentation material which will be used in the teleconference/webcast can be downloaded on www.flexlng.com and replay details will also be available at this website.
Questions should be directed to:
Øystein M. Kalleklev, CEO & CFO
Tel. +47 23 11 40 58
Email: ir@flexlng.com