John Fredriksen’s Flex LNG has announced that CEO Jonathan Cook has resigned, a role he has held since June 2016.
The company has appointed board member Marius Hermansen as interim CEO. Hermansen comes from a similar role in Golar LNG.
Flex also reported that it has entered into an agreement to acquire two 174,000 cu m dual fuel LNG carrier newbuildings under construction at Hyundai Heavy Industries for a price of $184m per vessel.
On the same day, Flex LNG received credit approval for a sale and leaseback deal for the LNG carrier newbuilding Flex Rainbow with an Asian lessor. The sale price under the lease is around 75% of the shipbuilding price for the vessel and the remaining 25% represent the advance hire for the ten year lease period.
Flex LNG reported a net loss of $1.8m for the first quarter of 2018, widened from $1m during the same period in 2017.
“Although we are disappointed by the financial performance in first quarter, we are pleased to be able to announce an attractive sale-leaseback of Flex Rainbow. This lease enables the Company to grow organically based on its existing paid-in equity by the acquisition of two additional high specification LNGC newbuildings at very attractive terms and conditions,” said Øystein Kalleklev, CFO of Flex LNG.
“The market for LNG transportation is cyclically recovering from lows experienced beginning of first quarter and we remain very confident about the long-term structural prospects for this market and are thus positioning for this up-turn with this accretive fleet expansion,” Kalleklev added.
