Scorpio Tankers beats growing pains with VLCC gain

Adjusting for the windfall reveals the slim toll taken by an expanding fleet and lower rates; Scorpio Tankers' adjusted profit for the first quarter was $1.9m, down from $6.6m in Q1 2013.

For the fleet as a whole, gross time charter equivalent earnings rose from $29m to $72.8m as the fleet grew from an average of 29.6 vessels to 50.7. On a daily basis average daily TCE revenue fell to $15,906 per day from $16,597.

Efficiency savings were made as vessel operating costs fell from $7,185 to $8,840 per day, although the significant growth of the owned fleet from 12.8 to 20.2 vessels pushed operating costs up to $13.1m from $5.1m.

Scorpio Tankers' fleet remains in growth mode as 55 vessels still remain to be delivered, with $1.4bn in future payments outstanding. The 29 MRs, 14 Handymaxes and 12 LR2 tankers are split across Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, SPP Shipbuilding, Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding and Machine Engineering, with deliveries through til mid-2015.

The company also announced it had bought back $18.9m in its own shares and has authorised the buyback of up to a further $100m in shares.

Scorpio Tankers currently owns and operates 19 vessels totalling 1m dwt, with a further 27 ships and 1.9m dwt chartered-in.