Exmar’s profit drop softened by vessel sales

Belgium’s Exmar, the Nicolas Savery-led shipowner, reported a $28 million net profit for the year 2017, on IFRS, compared to $40.4 million in 2016. 

The company said that despite the drop, the result has been positively impacted by the sales of vessels including FSRU’s Excelerate, Explorer and Express that have been sold to their charterer, Excelerate Energy.

Exmar’s operating result for its LNG division was $47.6 million on the back of a capital gain of $70 million on the sale of the FSRU’s. This compares to $41 million reported in 2016.

The company noted that its barge-based FSRU was awarded a long-term contract and is currently undergoing site-specific modifications before the start of its operations in the second half of 2018.

The floating liquefaction barge, the Caribbean FLNG is still awaiting final deployment with several candidate projects under consideration, however, Exmar expects no income from the unit in 2018.

Exmar noted in its report that its ship management unit maintains operation and maintenance of the FSRU’s as well as the LNG carrier Excell that was also sold and is undergoing conversion into a floating storage unit.