Bahri Rakes In on Larger Fleet, Better TCE Rates

zoom The National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (Bahri) reported SAR 399 million (USD 106.4m) net profit for the three months ended March 31, a 104.5% increase compared to the SAR 195 million net profit for the same period in 2014. Compared to SAR 124.3m net profit in the last quarter of 2014, Bahri improved its Q1 2015 net earnings by 223.3%. The Saudi carrier chalked up the year-on-year improvement in its net income to the introduction of 14 new vessels to its fleet of Very Large Crude Carriers, which now stands at 31 vessels,  5 new product tankers and one floating storage as a result of completing the merger of Vela Marines assets and operations, all fully employed during the current quarter. Better earnings y-o-y were also recorded on the back of the increase in average Time Charter Equivalent (TCE) rates in crude oil transportation spot market during the current quarter compared to the corresponding quarter of 2014. The estimated earnings per share for the quarter amounted to SAR 1.01, compared to SAR 0.62 for corresponding quarter of previous year and SAR 0.36 for the previous quarter, with the number of outstanding shares increasing from 315 million shares to 393.75 million shares on September 15, 2014.