August 24, 2022 - Hamilton, Bermuda
Flex LNG Ltd. ("Flex LNG" or the “Company”) today announced its unaudited financial results for the six months ended June 30, 2022.
Highlights:
- Vessel operating revenues of $84.2 million for the second quarter 2022, compared to $74.6 million for the first quarter 2022.
- Net income of $44.3 million and basic earnings per share of $0.83 for the second quarter 2022, compared to net income of $55.8 million and basic earnings per share of $1.05 for the first quarter 2022.
- Average Time Charter Equivalent1 ("TCE") rate of $70,707 per day for the second quarter 2022, compared to $62,627 per day for the first quarter 2022.
- Adjusted EBITDA1 of $66.1 million for the second quarter 2022, compared to $56.3 million for the first quarter 2022.
- Adjusted net income1 of $32.5 million for the second quarter 2022, compared to $23.8 million for the first quarter 2022.
- Adjusted basic and diluted earnings per share1 of $0.61 for the second quarter 2022, compared to $0.45 for the first quarter 2022.
- In June 2022, the Company replaced the existing variable rate time charters with new seven year time charters for the Flex Enterprise and Flex Amber which commenced in the third quarter 2022.
- In June 2022, the Company signed a 10 year fixed rate time charter for Flex Rainbow commencing in the first quarter 2023.
- In August 2022, the Company successfully executed a call option for $137 million to buy back the Flex Enterprise under its sale and leaseback agreement. As a result, the vessel is currently unencumbered.
- In August 2022, the Company declared a call option to repurchase the Flex Endeavour, which will be re-financed under the $375 Million Facility in September 2022.
- The Company now has SOFR and LIBOR based interest rate swaps with an aggregate notional principals of $450 million and $403.4 million respectively. The weighted average SOFR interest rate is 1.90% with weighted average duration of 9 years. Whilst the weighted average LIBOR interest rate is 1.04% with a weighted average duration of 2.8 years.
- The Company declared a dividend for the second quarter 2022 of $1.25 per share, consisting of a quarterly dividend of $0.75 per share and a special, one-time dividend of $0.50 per share.
Øystein M Kalleklev, CEO of Flex LNG Management AS, commented:
“We in Flex LNG are today pleased to release solid second quarter results. We are in the midst of a global gas crunch where buyers, especially in Europe, are scrambling to get their hands on LNG cargoes to ensure adequate energy supplies ahead of the winter. Hence, we are seeing increased interest for LNG with several new export projects now being pushed forward. New LNG export projects will create future freight demand, further underpinning the very sound long-term fundamentals of our industry.
In the second quarter we delivered revenues of $84.2 million. This is about $10 million higher than in the first quarter, and in line with our previous revenue guidance. Net income for the quarter came in at a healthy $44.3 million or 83 cents per share. Unlike the Federal Reserve, we have been ahead of the curve, hedging a substantial part of our interest rate exposure prior to inflation concerns surfacing. We are therefore booking further gains on our interest rate hedges. In the second quarter the gains were $14.5 million, and this comes on top of the $31.9 million we booked in the first quarter. Adjusting for the non-cash portion of the hedging gains, our adjusted net income came in at $32.5 million or 61 cents per share.
We recently announced three attractive new long-term contracts. Two seven-year charters for Flex Enterprise and Flex Amber commenced on July 1st while Flex Rainbow will commence a ten-year contract early next year. In total, these three contracts have added 24 years of backlog which is expected to generate approximately $750 million of revenues in total. Consequently, our backlog has increased to minimum 54 years, and this provides a very high level of earnings visibility going forward.
We are therefore reiterating our revenue guidance of about $90 million for the third quarter and somewhere between $90 and $100 million for the fourth quarter. Hence, we expect even stronger results in the second half of the year as we are re-pricing our portfolio of ships with longer duration contracts.
We recently finalized the first phase of our balance sheet optimization program in which we raised $137 million of additional cash while also improving financing terms. We have now initiated the second phase of this balance sheet optimization program with the aim of raising an additional $100m of fresh cash while simultaneously improving financing terms.
With a super strong cash balance at quarter end of $283.7 million we have therefore decided to distribute some of our surplus cash back to our shareholders.
On the back of this, we are once again declaring an ordinary quarterly dividend of 75 cents per share. Further, we are also pleased to reward our shareholders with a special dividend of 50 cents per share, bringing the total dividend in the second quarter to $1.25 per share. With this special dividend, the dividend for the last four quarters adds up to $3.5 per share annually which provides our shareholders with an attractive yield of around 10 per cent.”
Second Quarter 2022 Result Presentation
Flex LNG will release its financial results for the second quarter 2022 on Wednesday August 24, 2022.
In connection with the earnings release, a video webcast will be held at 3:00 p.m. CEST (9:00 a.m. EST). In order to attend the webcast use the following link: https://events.webcast.no/viewer-registration/DWEGc5CD/register
A Q&A session will be held after the conference/webcast. Information on how to submit questions will be given at the beginning of the session.
The presentation material which will be used in the conference/webcast can be downloaded on www.flexlng.com and replay details will also be available at this website.
For further information, please contact:
Mr. Knut Traaholt, Chief Financial Officer of Flex LNG Management AS
Telephone: +47 23 11 40 00
Email: ir@flexlng.com
This announcement is considered to include inside information pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation and is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. This announcement was published by Knut Traaholt, CFO of Flex LNG, at the date and time set out above.
Forward-Looking Statements
Matters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides safe harbor protections for forward-looking statements in order to encourage companies to provide prospective information about their business. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements, which are other than statements of historical facts. The Company desires to take advantage of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and is including this cautionary statement in connection with this safe harbor legislation. The words "believe," "expect," "forecast," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "plan," "possible," "potential," "pending," "target," "project," "likely," "may," "will," "would," "should," "could" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements.
The forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions, including without limitation, management’s examination of historical operating trends, data contained in the Company’s records and other data available from third parties. Although management believes that these assumptions were reasonable when made, because these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond the Company’s control, there can be no assurance that the Company will achieve or accomplish these expectations, beliefs or projections. As such, these forward-looking statements are not guarantees of the Company’s future performance, and actual results and future developments may vary materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation, and specifically declines any obligation, except as required by applicable law or regulation, to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for the Company to predict all of these factors. Further, the Company cannot assess the effect of each such factor on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to be materially different from those contained in any forward-looking statement.
In addition to these important factors, other important factors that, in the Company’s view, could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements include: unforeseen liabilities, future capital expenditures, the strength of world economies and currencies, general market conditions, including fluctuations in charter rates and vessel values, changes in demand in the LNG tanker market, the impact of public health threats and outbreaks of other highly communicable diseases, including the length and severity of the COVID-19 outbreak and its impact on the LNG tanker market, changes in the Company’s operating expenses, including bunker prices, dry-docking and insurance costs, the fuel efficiency of the Company’s vessels, the market for the Company’s vessels, availability of financing and refinancing, ability to comply with covenants in such financing arrangements, failure of counterparties to fully perform their contracts with the Company, changes in governmental rules and regulations or actions taken by regulatory authorities, including those that may limit the commercial useful lives of LNG tankers, customers' increasing emphasis on environmental and safety concerns, potential liability from pending or future litigation, general domestic and international political conditions or events, including the recent conflict between Russia and Ukraine, business disruptions, including supply chain disruption and congestion, due to natural or other disasters or otherwise, potential physical disruption of shipping routes due to accidents, climate-related incidents, or political events, vessel breakdowns and instances of off-hire, and other factors, including those that may be described from time to time in the reports and other documents that the Company files with or furnishes to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“Other Reports”). For a more complete discussion of certain of these and other risks and uncertainties associated with the Company, please refer to the Other Reports.
1 Time Charter Equivalent rate, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted net income/(loss) and Adjusted earnings/(loss) per share are non-GAAP measures. A reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP measure is included in the end of this earnings report.
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