Singapore: FSL Trust Announces Second Time Charter Contract with Petrobras

FSL Trust Management Pte. Ltd. (“FSLTM”), as trustee-manager of First Ship Lease Trust (“FSL Trust” or the “Trust”) announced that its product tanker, ‘FSL Hamburg’, will be chartered to Petròleo Brasileiro S.A. (“Petrobras”) on a three-year time charter contract. This will be FSL Trust’s second time charter contract with Petrobras.

Subject to physical inspection of the vessel by Petrobras, ‘FSL Hamburg’ will be chartered on a gross daily charter rate of US$14,000 per day for a period of three years from the third quarter of 2012.

As an update to the announcement on 28 March 2012, the Trust would like to confirm that its product tanker, ‘FSL Singapore’, has cleared its physical inspection with Petrobras.

FSL Trust has incorporated a wholly-owned subsidiary, FSL Netherlands B.V., a private limited company in Amsterdam, to enter into the two time charter contracts directly with Petrobras. FSL Netherlands B.V. will in turn enter into back-to-back arrangements with FSL-18 Pte. Ltd. and FSL-19 Pte. Ltd.

These arrangements will allow FSL Trust to take advantage of efficient tax structuring for these time charters.

[mappress]

Source: FSLTM, May 4, 2012