First Ship Lease Trust returns to the black in Q3 with US$744,000 net profit

FIRST Ship Lease Trust on Thursday reported a net profit of US$744,000 for its third quarter ended Sept 30, 2014, returning to the black from losses of US$8.9 million a year ago.

This is the second consecutive quarter that the trust has turned in a profit.

"This has been another strong quarter for the trust, demonstrating that the ongoing restructuring efforts of the management team are producing tangible results," it said.

"There has been further progress made in our efforts to increase revenue earned by the redelivered vessels, improving pool point performance for pooled vessels and deploying vessels on strong time charters (for example FSL Shanghai to Tesoro)," it added.

Q3 revenue rose 5.2 per cent to US$23.6 million.

Its latest set of results narrowed its nine-month losses to US$3.2 million, from US$23.2 million a year ago. Nine-month revenue was also 3.3 per cent higher at US$69.0 million.