Earnings Labs

Teekay Tankers Ltd. (TNK)

Q1 2008 Earnings Call· Thu, May 15, 2008

$78.13

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen thank you for standing by. Welcome to Teekay Tankers first quarter 2008 earnings release conference call. During the call all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards you will be invited to participate in a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder this call is being recorded. Now for opening remarks and introduction I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Bjorn Moller, TeeKay Tankers President and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead sir.

David Drummond

Management

Before, Mr. Bjorn Moller begin I would like to direct all participants to our website at www.teekaytankers.com where you will find a copy of the first quarter 2008 earnings presentation. Mr. Moller will review this presentation during today's conference call. Please allow me to remind you that our discussion today contains forward-looking statements. Actual result may differ materially from those projected by those forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to materially differ from those in the forward-looking statements is contained in our earnings release and the earnings release presentation available on our website. I will now turn it over to Mr. Moller to begin.

Bjorn Moller

Management

Thank you Dave and good morning ladies and gentlemen; I am very pleased to report you the results of our first full quarter as a publicly traded company. With me today from Teekay Tankers is Mr. Vince Lok, Chief Financial Officer and Mr. Peter Evensen our Executive VP. Turning to the presentation and to slide three and reviewing the first quarter highlights, we are pleased to report that the company earned $14 million or $0.56 per share in net income. We also generated $17.6 million of cash available for distribution for the three month period ended March 31, 2008. As a result, we declared a cash dividend of $0.70 per share for the quarter. The cash distribution is payable on May 30 to all stock holders on record on May 23. On April 7, 2008 we acquired two double Suezmax-class oil tankers, the 2002 built Ganges Spirit and the 2003 build Narmada Spirit from Teekay Corporation for a total cost of $186.9 million. The company financed the acquisition assuming existing debt related to the vessels and utilizing the company’s un-drawn revolving credit facility for the remainder of the purchase price. The Ganges Spirit will be employed on its pre existing time charter contract that expires in May 2012 and the Narmada Spirit is currently employed in the spot market trading. Turning next to slide four, our current fleet mix demonstrates the tactical management of our fleet. Out recent acquisition of two Suezmaxs maintenance our balance of stock market exposure and fixed rate coverage. However the Ganges Spirit, although employed on a time charter has a profit share component which allows Teekay Tankers to benefit from high Suezmax spot tanker rates. The 50/50 profit share on this vessel kicks in at Suezmax rates earned by Teekay's Gemini Pool above $33,500 a…

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) The first question comes from John Chappell, from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.

Jonathan Chappell - J.P. Morgan

Analyst

Thanks, good morning guys. On the growth opportunities, we know what Teekay has to drop down, but I think the third party drop downs offer a lot more potential, can you talk about how the return dynamics have changed just in the last three months, since we spoke last, we have seen some players who have been out of the market for several years start to return now; do the rates now justify kind of current asset prices in your view?

Bjorn Moller

Management

Yes, I think they do and of course you have to have the currency to be able to acquire assets and I think that we would be -- cost of development in Teekay Tanker’s share price; I think we have a good currency. So, the whole theory behind the Teekay Tanker’s growth strategy is to be able to use its superior currency to consolidate a very fragmented market and so there is no question that that strategy is setup for success in light of the various dynamics we see now.

Jonathan Chappell - J.P. Morgan

Analyst

When we look at third parties, would you envision trying to remain in the Aframax and Suezmax mid size tanker fleet, so you can benefit from the pools that you already have established?

Bjorn Moller

Management

That would be the primary growth path as we see it right now. I mean there is clearly opportunity if attractive deals came along elsewhere but I think that will be the main for us, because there is economy of scale and Teekay has some strong customer relationships that can be used and so I would say that that is the primary growth path and that’s also where I think we have a competitive advantage to our fleet utilization and our ability to extract additional cash flow per share for that.

Jonathan Chappell - J.P. Morgan

Analyst

I know the Kanata expiring very soon in the foster and a couple of more months probably for the next call. Are you planed to re-charter both of these on contracts, you try to balance them out, maybe one and one and has your ideas kind of changed given the unseasonable strength of the spot markets.

Bjorn Moller

Management

Yes I think, we kind of -- I guess we are going to be actively and tactically managing the fleet. When we took one Suezmax in the spot and one with time charter that was I guess replenishing a proportion a little bit more in the time charter side and there was sort of an anticipation that we would have some ships running off, so I suspect we will either not renew, either of those ships or at the outside maybe one of those ships depending on where rates go. We have also said of course that if there was a significant pick up in rates and we could layoff some tonnage, then we would look at that, but they would have to be at rates that are quite a bit higher than were they are expiring in my view in light of the strong market.

Jonathan Chappell - J.P. Morgan

Analyst

Okay and then finally just, is there any scheduled off-hire days for the fleet for the remainder of this year?

Bjorn Moller

Management

We do have one vessel, that’s dry-docking in the second quarter and we have one Suezmaxes dry-docking in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) The next question comes from Ken Hoexter from Merrill Lynch; please go ahead. Seth Larry – Merrill Lynch: Hi, this [Seth Larry] in for Ken, who is traveling. I was wondering if you could dig in a little further on the revenues for 2Q. I know you mention before for both vessels it would be approximately 60% booked or so. I was wondering how long do you expect until you’ve got 100% booked and can you quantify providing further color on how much higher the rates are going to be for that remaining percentage that's un-booked?

Bjorn Moller

Management

I think it’s -- I mean I think it we can all look at Clarkson's numbers which you can see tanker rates for Suezmax's for Clarkson at 100,000 a day and at the moment and I think depending which route you look at, Aframax is arranging from 45,000 to 75,000, but that’s using Clarkson we’ve -- in order to be consistent we stick to the guidance we’ve given. I guess I can't say that, our first -- our Q2 Aframax number is influenced by the fact that some ships are trading in the east and some in the west and there was a bit of a slower start and slower ramp up in tanker rates in the East, in April, but that has since caught up and now tanker rates in the East are actually quite strong. So, I guess typically you fix -- the booking for Suezmax is a little further ahead than from Aframax, so you would typically be fixed three to four weeks ahead for Suezmax tankers and two to three weeks ahead for Aframax tankers. This quarter it's actually a little bit reversed and that we have further coverage on the Aframax but it's pretty close.

Operator

Operator

Your final question comes from Daniel Burke from Johnson Rice. Please go ahead. Daniel Burke – Johnson Rice: Just one question on the leverage you are comfortable with, the Teekay tankers in light of the Suezmax acquisitions; I was curious what you felt was the most appropriate leverage range particularly in light of your comments that you maybe comfortable shifting; I guess the Kanata and the Foster towards the spot market?

Bjorn Moller

Management

Dan we started out with the IPO at a very conservative leverage level of 25% debt to turn market value of assets. With the acquisition of the two Suezmaxs, I think one of things we are benefiting from is the low interest rates. The $119 million that we paid for those two ships, the average interest rate right now and those on a floating basis is about 3.5% all in. So, right now our debt deferred market value is sort of in the mid 40% range. I think long-term we would like to lower that to strengthen the balance sheet further, but right now we are benefiting from the low interest rate environment.

Daniel Burke - Johnson Rice

Analyst · Johnson Rice

Sure, thanks and then I guess one ticky tack follow-up, just the G&A line is that a good run rate; it’s a little lower than we thought we would see?

Bjorn Moller

Management

Yes, I think on an average you should look at about $2000 per ship per day.

Operator

Operator

Mr. Moller. There are no further questions at this time. Please continue.

Bjorn Moller

Management

Okay. Well, thanks very much for attending today. This is our first full quarter and we are very excited about the results for the quarter and we are excited about the strong tanker market. So, we appreciate your interest and have the nice day.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the conference call for today. You many now disconnect your lines and have a great day.