Navigator Holdings Ltd. Preliminary First Quarter 2015 results
Highlights
Navigator Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: NVGS) reports net income of $22.0 million for the three months ended March 31, 2015, up 30.5% compared to the three months ended March 31, 2014.
EBITDA1 increased 25% to $44.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2015 from $36.0 million for the three months ended March 31, 2014.
Earnings per share increased to $0.40 for the three months ended March 31, 2015, after a write off of deferred financing costs equating to $0.03 per share, compared to earnings per share of $0.31 for the three months ended March 31, 2014.
Completed the delivery of another newbuilding vessel, Navigator Triton, on January 9, 2015, taking our total fleet to 27 vessels on the water at March 31, 2015. We added a 28th vessel, a semi-refrigerated ethylene carrier, Navigator Umbrio, on April 27, 2015.
A current 10 semi-refrigerated gas carriers newbuildings on order, for delivery between June 2015 and March 2017.
First Quarter 2015 Financial Results Overview
Operating revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2015 was $74.2 million, an increase of $4.4 million, or 6.3%, when compared to operating revenue of $69.8 million for the three months ended March 31, 2014. This increase was due to an increase in the weighted average number of vessels in our fleet, improvements in the average monthly charter rates and an increase in vessel utilization, offset by a decrease as a result of the fall in bunker prices.
During the first quarter of 2015, the average time charter equivalent rate across the entire fleet, including our fully-refrigerated vessels, was approximately $887,560 per calendar month ($29,180 per day), compared to $871,385 per calendar month ($28,648 per day) for the comparable period in 2014.
Fleet utilization across the 27 vessels operating during the three months ended March 31, 2015 increased slightly to 97.0% for the first quarter of 2015, from 96.9% of the first quarter of 2014.
Costs were in line with expectations with any increases primarily as a result of the increase in the number of vessels we operated.
The write off of deferred financing costs of $1.8 million for the three months ended March 31, 2015 related to finance costs associated with one of our previous secured term loan facilities, which was refinanced during the three months ended March 31, 2015, in accordance with U.S. GAAP.
Net operating revenue, which is operating revenue less voyage expenses, amounted to $67.3 million for the three months ended March 31, 2015, up from $59.9 million for the same period in 2014. Of this increase, $6.1 million resulted from the additional vessels in the fleet, $1.2 million from an increase in charter rates and $0.1 million from a slight increase in vessel utilization.
Net income rose 30.5% to $22.0 million for the three months ended March 31, 2015, from $16.9 million for the three months ended March 31, 2014. Earnings per share was $0.40 for the three months ended March 31, 2015 compared to $0.31 per share for the three months ended March 31, 2014.
EBITDA for the first quarter of 2015 was $44.7 million, compared to $36.0 million for the first quarter of 2014.
