HAMILTON, Bermuda, Nov. 12, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nordic American Tankers Limited ("NAT") announced that it has today entered into an agreement to purchase 1,521,300 shares in Nordic American Offshore Ltd. ("NAO"), increasing the NAT shareholding in NAO from 4,496,980 to 6,018,280 shares or from 19.8% to 26.5% ownership, which was the NAT ownership in NAO when the latter company was established in the autumn of 2013 and listed on the Oslo OTC (over-the-counter) exchange. The NAO shares were bought in a private transaction effective November 12, 2015 at price of $6.25 per share, in total $9.5m. NAO has 22,729,797 shares outstanding.
NAO was listed on the New York Stock Exchange June 12, 2014 and owns now 10 platform supply vessels of which two are newbuildings to be delivered in 2016. The NAO 3Q2015 earnings report was published November 9, 2015. NAO is fully financed up to early 2020.
NAT Chairman & CEO, Herbjorn Hansson, commented: "This transaction is an evidence of our belief in the NYSE listed Nordic American Offshore Ltd. which is built on the same strategic principles as NAT."
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Matters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides safe harbor protections for forward-looking statements in order to encourage companies to provide prospective information about their business. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements, which are other than statements of historical facts.
The Company desires to take advantage of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and is including this cautionary statement in connection with this safe harbor legislation. The words "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "estimate," "forecast," "project," "plan," "potential," "will," "may," "should," "expect," "pending" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements.
The forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions, including without limitation, our management's examination of historical operating trends, data contained in our records and other data available from third parties. Although we believe that these assumptions were reasonable when made, because these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond our control, we cannot assure you that we will achieve or accomplish these expectations, beliefs or projections. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Important factors that, in our view, could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements include the strength of world economies and currencies, general market conditions, including fluctuations in charter rates and vessel values, changes in demand in the tanker market, as a result of changes in OPEC's petroleum production levels and world wide oil consumption and storage, changes in our operating expenses, including bunker prices, drydocking and insurance costs, the market for our vessels, availability of financing and refinancing, changes in governmental rules and regulations or actions taken by regulatory authorities, potential liability from pending or future litigation, general domestic and international political conditions, potential disruption of shipping routes due to accidents or political events, vessels breakdowns and instances of off-hires and other important factors described from time to time in the reports filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the prospectus and related prospectus supplement, our Annual Report on Form 20-F, and our reports on Form 6-K.
Contacts:
Jan H. A. Moller,
Head of Investor Relations & Financial Manager
Nordic American Tankers Limited
Tel: +47 33 42 73 00 or +47 90 11 53 75
Turid M. Sørensen, CFO & EVP
Nordic American Tankers Limited
Tel: +47 33 42 73 00 or +47 90 57 29 27
Rolf Amundsen, Advisor
Nordic American Tankers Limited
Tel: +1 800 601 9079 or + 47 908 26 906
Gary J. Wolfe
Seward & Kissel LLP, New York, USA
Tel: +1 212 574 1223
Press release (PDF): http://hugin.info/201/R/1966461/718146.pdf