Oslo-listed Avance is paying out $1 per share for the quarter, which covered four months following the update of the company’s financial year to align with the calendar.
Eirik Haavaldsen of Pareto Securities said: "Avance delivered like clockwork in Q4 (four months) with average time charter equivalent rates of $70,324 in line with our $70,000 per day estimate.”
He added: “However, in the strong market what matters are the dividends in our view, and management/board shows confidence in upping it to $1.0/share, above earnings and its third quarter payout of $0.92. We believe this is positive.”
Avance clocked up profit of $33.7m in the fourth months to the close of 2014, in line with consensus, taking its bottom line to $81.77m in the 13 months to the end of December.
The owner has a fully-funded newbuilding orderbook having secured a $200m loan on the final four ships at the start of 2015.
Christian Andersen, president of Avance Gas told TradeWinds at the time that Nordea, DNB, Danske Bank, ABN Amro and KfW IPEX-Bank were the banks involved.
Andersen was previously an aggressive advocate of consolidation in the sector but has softened his stance and has instead focused on profitable operation of the ships he has.
