Economia
FRO – First Quarter 2024 Results
FRONTLINE PLC REPORTS RESULTS FOR THE FIRST QUARTER ENDED MARCH 31, 2024
Frontline plc (the “Company” or “Frontline”), today reported unaudited results for the three months ended March 31, 2024:
Highlights
Lars H. Barstad, Chief Executive Officer of Frontline Management AS, commented:
"During the first quarter of 2024, Frontline took delivery of the remaining 13 of the 24 VLCCs acquired from Euronav last year. Our scalable business model has proven efficient as the vessels entered the Frontline fleet smoothly, growing our vessel day exposure by approximately one-third. Our first quarter earnings were solid, as markets remained firm throughout the quarter, and LR2 rates offered proper volatility as returns reached six digits in January 2024. The asset classes we deploy have gradually offered better returns as we progress in 2024.”
Inger M. Klemp, Chief Financial Officer of Frontline Management AS, added:
“The net cash proceeds of approximately $692.0 million expected to be generated from the sales and refinancing of vessels enabled us in April 2024 to repay the $100.0 million drawn under the $275.0 million senior unsecured revolving credit facility with an affiliate of Hemen and will enable us to repay the $295.0 million drawn under the Hemen shareholder loan in relation to the Acquisition. This completes our strategy of freeing up capital through re-leveraging part of the existing fleet and the sale of older non eco vessels to finance the Acquisition."
Average daily TCEs and estimated cash breakeven rates
In December 2023, the Company took delivery of 11 VLCCs as part of the Acquisition. These vessels contributed 184 trading days net of offhire in the fourth quarter of 2023, of which 150 were ballast days. This negatively impacted the overall VLCC spot rate in the fourth quarter of 2023 by $3,100 per day as limited revenues were recorded in relation to these vessels, whereas the Company includes all trading days in the VLCC spot rate. The 2023 spot TCE actuals presented in the table above exclude the impact of the vessels delivered as a result of the Acquisition.
The spot TCE actuals in the first quarter of 2024 and the spot TCE estimates in the second quarter of 2024 include the impact of all the vessels delivered as a result of the Acquisition. We expect the spot TCEs for the full second quarter of 2024 to be lower than the TCEs currently contracted, due to the impact of ballast days at the end of the first quarter of 2024. The number of ballast days at the end of the first quarter of 2024 was 984 days for VLCCs, 393 days for Suezmax tankers and 212 days for LR2/Aframax tankers.
The Board of Directors
Frontline plc
Limassol, Cyprus
May 29, 2024
Ola Lorentzon - Chairman and Director
John Fredriksen - Director
Ole B. Hjertaker - Director
James O'Shaughnessy - Director
Steen Jakobsen - Director
Marios Demetriades - Director
Cato Stonex - Director
Questions should be directed to:
Lars H. Barstad: Chief Executive Officer, Frontline Management AS
+47 23 11 40 00
Inger M. Klemp: Chief Financial Officer, Frontline Management AS
+47 23 11 40 00
Forward-Looking Statements
Matters discussed in this report may constitute forward-looking statements. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides safe harbor protections for forward-looking statements, which include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements, which are other than statements of historical facts.
Frontline plc and its subsidiaries, or the Company, desires to take advantage of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and is including this cautionary statement in connection with this safe harbor legislation. This report and any other written or oral statements made by us or on our behalf may include forward-looking statements, which reflect our current views with respect to future events and financial performance and are not intended to give any assurance as to future results. When used in this document, the words "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "estimate," "forecast," "project," "plan," "potential," "will," "may," "should," "expect" and similar expressions, terms or phrases may identify forward-looking statements.
The forward-looking statements in this report are based upon various assumptions, including without limitation, management's examination of historical operating trends, data contained in our records and data available from third parties. Although we believe that these assumptions were reasonable when made, because these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond our control, we cannot assure you that we will achieve or accomplish these expectations, beliefs or projections. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
In addition to these important factors and matters discussed elsewhere herein, important factors that, in our view, could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements include:
We caution readers of this report not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates. These forward-looking statements are no guarantee of our future performance, and actual results and future developments may vary materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements.
This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5-12 the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.
This press release describes Time Charter Equivalent earnings and related per day amounts, which are not measures prepared in accordance with IFRS (“non-GAAP”). See Appendix 1 for a full description of the measures and reconciliation to the nearest IFRS measure.
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