Dorian LPG Doubles Annual Profit

Dorian LPG Ltd. reported Wednesday $172.44 million in net income for the 12 months to March 2023, more than double that of a year ago as higher shipping rates pushed revenue up.

The Stamford-city headquartered gas carrier logged $76.02 million in net earnings for January-March 2023, also more than double the same period last year as its revenue for the first calendar quarter saw an addition of over $54.05 million to $133.64 million against January-March 2022.

Dorian LPG collected $389.75 million in revenue in its fiscal year ended March, up from $274.22 million compared to the prior year.

“The increase is primarily attributable to increased average TCE [time charter equivalent] rates and a slight increase in fleet utilization”, it said in a press release. Its TCE rates, or daily revenue accounting round-trip expenses, averaged $50,462 in the 12 months to March, up 45.6 percent against the one-year period before “due to higher spot rates partially offset by higher bunker prices”.

Dorian LPG’s TCE rates for the first three months of 2023 rose 57.1 percent to $ 68,135 from January-March 2022.

It said winter led to higher LPG imports in Far Eastern countries including Japan in January-March 2023. In China, following the easing of coronavirus restrictions, it expects LPG imports to have surpassed 2.7 million metric tons April.

“Two new propane dehydrogenation plants started operating in the first calendar quarter of 2023 with a flurry of new plants are [sic] still expected to come online throughout 2023, leading to the expectation of higher demand for imports in China”, Dorian LPG added.

“The fourth quarter marked the culmination of the best financial year in the Company's history”, chair, president and chief executive John Hadjipateras commented in the announcement. “Strong chartering results and a solid balance sheet enabled us to return nearly $225 million to our shareholders during fiscal year 2023”.

Earning $1.89 per diluted share in the first three months of 2023, Dorian LPG paid $40.4 million in irregular dividends for the quarter, according to the company.

Despite the results Dorian LPG closed lower at $23.32 on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday from $23.85 in the previous session, as the outstanding balance of its long-term debt climbed to $663.6 million as of March from $642 million in September.

It said it has entered a $260 million debt financing facility to refinance loans under the 2015 AR Facility, Concorde Japanese Financing and Corvette Japanese Financing.

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