Rickmers Maritime eats into cash pile to keep Q1 DPU at 0.6 US cent

CONTAINER-SHIP owner Rickmers Maritime has continued to eat into its cash pile to keep distributions per unit (DPU) steady at 0.6 US cent for the first quarter, amid ongoing softness in the shipping industry.

Its cash flow available for distribution to unitholders came in at US$2.5 million for the three months ended March 31, 2015, after payments to debt capital providers.

This was less than the US$5.1 million total sum that it is distributing to unitholders, according to the trust's Q1 financial results released on Friday.

Net profit for the quarter tumbled 29 per cent to US$7 million, on the back of a 16 per cent slide in charter revenue to US$28.6 million from the previous year.

The trust said in a statement on Friday that its fleet of 16 container ships was 98.8 per cent utilised in Q1.

Rickmers Maritime units rose half a cent to S$0.29 on Friday.