Stelmar Shipping Ltd., announced operating results for the second quarter and the six months ended June 30, 2002.
For the second quarter of 2002, the Company reported net income of $11,453,000, or $0.73 per diluted share, compared with $7,678,000, or $0.64 per diluted share, for the second quarter of 2001. The weighted average number of diluted shares used in the computations was 15,591,267 and 11,967,259 respectively, as the Company completed a secondary offering in April of this year. Operating income increased to $16,043,000 from $10,768,000 in the second quarter of 2001. EBITDA for the quarter was $24,878,000 compared with $15,384,000 for last year's second quarter. On a time charter basis, revenues for the quarter were $36,716,000, an increase of 63.3 percent over the $22,490,000 recorded in the second quarter of last year, mainly due to the expansion of the fleet. Time charter earned revenues for the second quarter of 2002 were $33,890,000 approximately 92.3 percent of revenues, on a time charter basis, as opposed to $15,411,000 or 68.5 percent of revenues, on a time charter basis, for the same period last year.
Peter Goodfellow, Chief Executive Officer, commented, "The second quarter marks Stelmar's thirtieth consecutive quarter of profitability. Our solid performance in this challenging market environment has further underscored the benefits and value of our time charter strategy for operating profitably in diverse tanker markets. We have continued to sign long-term time charters at profitable rates while still being able to secure shorter-term contracts at rates higher than those currently offered in the spot market. This has enabled us to achieve high utilization rates in a challenging market and to position ourselves for significant earnings visibility out to 2004."