First Ship Lease Trust sails into the black in Q1

IMPROVING its deployment and management of redelivered vessels helped containership and tanker owner First Ship Lease (FSL) Trust chug its way out of a sea of red ink.

The trust made a net profit of US$5.06 million for the first quarter, reversing the US$4.95 million loss in the same period of the previous year.

Revenue for the three months to March 31 rose 10.5 per cent to US$24.78 million, it said in a Singapore Exchange filing on Wednesday.

This is the trust's fourth straight quarter of profitability. It had been incurring losses for several years, partly because some shippers had defaulted on their leases during an industry slump.

Earnings per unit for Q1 climbed to 0.77 US cent, compared to a loss per unit of 0.76 US cent the previous year. Net asset value per unit was 41 US cents as at March 31, unchanged from Dec 31.

FSL Trust units increased 0.1 Singapore cent to 18 Singapore cents on Wednesday.