The Hindu Business Line : Fleet expansion drives Mercator's net up in Q3

DESPITE a slight dip in freight market, especially in the VLCC segment, Mercator Lines Ltd (MLL) has posted a 316 per cent increase in net profit in the third quarter of the current fiscal, mostly due to brisk fleet expansion in the last nine months.

MLL, which is the country's third largest private shipping company in terms of tonnage, has notched up a net profit of Rs 58 crore during the quarter ended December, as against Rs 23.93 crore in the corresponding quarter of last fiscal.

Its income from operations during the quarter touched the Rs 168.79-crore mark, as against Rs 72.53 crore in the third quarter of the last fiscal, representing an increase of 132 per cent.

The board of directors of the company has declared an interim dividend of 100 per cent on paid up equity capital of Rs 6.99 crore and fixed February 1 as the record date.

During the nine-month period, the company's net profit and income stood at Rs 388.24 crore (previous corresponding nine month period — Rs 146.25 crore) and Rs 110.30 crore (Rs 25.19 crore) respectively.

Mr H.K. Mittal, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, attributed the increase in profit to fleet expansion. "During the last nine months we increased our fleet from 4.5 lakh DWT to 8.5 lakh DWT by adding one VLCC and an Aframax carrier. We will be having another 1.75 lakh DWT and 47,000 DWT vessels in February, when our fleet will touch one million DWT. In May, we will be acquiring another 1.10 lakh DWT vessel," he told Business Line.

He pointed out there was a dip in the freight market. "But we were not affected much, as 75 per cent of our fleet is on time-charter (involving long-term time charters), with only 25 per cent exposed to the market," he said. The dip was more in the VLCC segment. From the level of 100 WS (World Scale) in July, the VLCC rate did go up to 300 WS for a brief period in November, before flagging to the present level of 90 WS.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Fleet expansion drives Mercator's net up in Q3