d’Amico International Shipping S.A. exercised the options to order two more ‘Eco Design’ ships

d’Amico International Shipping S.A. (Borsa Italiana: DIS), an international marine transportation company, operating in the product tanker market, announces that its operating subsidiary d’Amico Tankers Limited (Ireland), exercised yesterday its purchase options, as earlier disclosed last 12 of March, and entered into contracts for the construction of two additional new product/chemical tanker vessels (Hulls 410 and S411 - 50,000 dwt Medium Range, the ‘Vessels’) with Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co. Ltd. – Korea, expected to be delivered in H2 2015, for a consideration of less than US$ 30.0 million each.
The Vessels are the latest IMO II MR design with the highest fuel efficiency. The design is the utmost HMD concept of hull shape and propulsion efficiency leading to a fuel saving of 6 -7 t/day compare to the average consumption of the world existing MR fleet. The Vessels will
have an attained Energy Design Index (EEDI) falling already well within the IMO phase-in 3
requirement due for vessels to be built after Jan 1st 2025, being of 31.5% lower than the current IMO reference line.
d’Amico Tankers Limited signed also a Letter of Intent agreeing with Hudson Partners LLC, an important financial institution based in Connecticut, United States the novation of one of these newbuilding contracts (vessel with Hull S410 ) to a special purpose vehicle guaranteed by Hudson Partners LLC for a consideration of US$ 150,000 in addition to the purchase price. The vessel will be commercially managed by DIS and will be employed either through time-charter, voyage charter contracts or through a pool managed by DIS or one of its affiliates. The Hull S410 construction supervision will be made by a company of the d’Amico Società di Navigazione S.p.A. group.
As of today the fleet controlled by d’Amico Tankers Limited includes a total of 40.5 double-hull Medium Range (MR) and Handysize product tankers, with an average age of about 6.2 years. The Company has a total of 8 newbuilding product tanker agreements, which include 6 MR and 2 Handysize vessels, at Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co. Ltd. In addition to this, DIS has one vessel on order in JV with Venice Shipping and Logistics S.p.A. (as earlier disclosed on the May 7th, 2013).
MANAGEMENT COMMENTARY
Marco Fiori, Chief Executive Officer of d’Amico International Shipping S.A. commented:
“I’m thrilled to announce the exercise of options to build two additional MR vessels, confirming DIS strategy to modernize its fleet through newbuildings with eco innovative design. We strongly believe these types of vessels are set to be the future of our industry and their estimated timing of delivery perfectly matches our positive market outlook on the
medium/long term.
Upon delivery these two ships will be the most advanced and efficient in terms of speed,
consumption and deadweight & draft ratios among their size. These technical improvements
will permit to improve current t/c equivalent rate revenue by an amount of at least US$ 3,000
per day.
We are also very happy to start an affiliation and set up an important commercial alliance with Hudson Partners, an independent firm providing alternative asset investment management and capital raising services for investment opportunities. We see a growing interest from private equity and capital markets funds in investing in the growing product tanker industry and DIS wants to position itself as a leading provider of the best shipping commercial and technical know-how towards these assets investors.
This deal pursues DIS objective to continue to grow in its sector and to increase the total number of vessels under its direct commercial management through solid relationships and
joint ventures with important market players. DIS has many years of successful experience in
commercially managing third party vessels through Pool agreements and therefore wants to
maximize market consolidation by capitalizing on such accumulated expertise.”
Source: d'Amico International Shipping S.A.