NEWS
Largest LNG carrier owner sees profit fall
Kuala Lumpur, Aug 22 (LNG journal)
- Malaysia International Shipping Corp., the world's largest single owner-operator of liquefied natural gas carriers, reported a fall of more than 7 percent in fiscal 2006 first-quarter profits as it sold fewer surplus ships.
MISC, which is 85 percent owned by Malaysian oil and gas company Petronas and other state agencies, also said net earnings were affected by higher costs of dollar-denominated debt.
The company said it made the equivalent of $226 million in net profit in the first-quarter to June 30 compared with $244M in the same quarter a year ago. The company's revenue rose 12 per cent to $690M.
MISC is the largest single owner-operator of LNG tankers in the world and its fleet currently includes 18 LNG carriers,46 petroleum tankers, 15 chemical tankers, 24 container ships and 36 bulk carriers.
All of the LNG tankers are on a 20-year time charter to Malaysia LNG for the transport of the product to Japan , South Korea and Taiwan .
Included in its earnings was a gain of $65M from the sale of four ships, compared with the $85M it made from ship sales in the year-ago period.
"The group's earnings arising from existing long-term charters in the LNG, petroleum and offshore businesses will provide the group with stable earnings," MISC said in a statement to the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange.
The shipping company said its pretax profit, excluding the gains made from selling its ships, was 3.4 per cent higher than a year ago.
"The increase is brought about by the newly-delivered vessels in LNG and petroleum business segments and Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering's turnaround to profitability during the current quarter," MISC said.
