We are Frontline Ltd., an international shipping company incorporated in Bermuda
as an exempted company under the Bermuda Companies Law of 1981 on June 12, 1992
(Company No. EC-17460). Our registered and principal executive offices are located
at Par-la-Ville Place, 14 Par-la-Ville Road, Hamilton, HM 08, Bermuda, and our
telephone number at that address is +(1) 441 295 6935.
We are engaged primarily in the ownership and operation of oil tankers. We
operate oil tankers of two sizes: VLCCs, which are between 200,000 and 320,000
dwt, and Suezmax tankers, which are vessels between 120,000 and 170,000 dwt.
We operate through subsidiaries and partnerships located in the Bahamas, Bermuda,
the Cayman Islands, India, the Isle of Man, Liberia, Norway, the United Kingdom
and Singapore. We are also involved in the charter, purchase and sale of vessels.
Since 1996, we have emerged as a leading tanker company within the VLCC and
Suezmax size sectors of the market.
We have our origin in Frontline AB, which was founded in 1985, and which was
listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange from 1989 to 1997. In May 1997, Frontline
AB was redomiciled from Sweden to Bermuda and its shares were listed on the
Oslo Stock Exchange under the symbol "FRO". The change of domicile
was executed through a share-for-share exchange offer from the then-newly formed
Bermuda company, Frontline Ltd, or Old Frontline. In September 1997, Old Frontline
initiated an amalgamation with London & Overseas Freighters Limited, or
LOF, also a Bermuda company. This process was completed in May 1998. As a result
of this transaction, Frontline became listed on the London Stock Exchange and
on the NASDAQ National Market (in the form of American Depositary Shares, or
ADSs, represented by American Depositary Receipts, or ADRs) in addition to its
listing on the Oslo Stock Exchange.
The ADR program was terminated on October 5, 2001 and the ADSs were de-listed
from the NASDAQ National Market on August 3, 2001. The Companys ordinary shares
began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on August 6, 2001 under the symbol
"FRO".
Ship Finance
In October 2003, the Company established Ship Finance International Limited,
or Ship Finance, in Bermuda. Through transactions executed in January 2004,
the Company transferred to Ship Finance ownership of 46 vessel-owning entities
each owning one vessel and its corresponding financing, and one entity owning
an option to acquire a VLCC. The Company then leased these vessels back on long-term
charters. Between May 2004 and March 2007, the Company distributed all of its
shareholding in Ship Finance to its shareholders except for 73,383 shares, which
represents 0.01% of Ship Finances total shares.
Our tanker fleet consisted of 22 vessels and comprised 14 VLCCs (excluding
the four vessels in the Windsor group) and eight Suezmax tankers, of which one
Suezmax, Front Ull, is owned and the remaining 21 are chartered in. We also
had one Suezmax newbuilding, Front Idun, a sister vessel of Front Ull, on order
and had nine VLCCs, six Suezmax tankers and one Aframax tanker under commercial
management. As of December 31, 2014, our tanker fleet had total tonnage of approximately
9.2 million dwt, including 3.8 million dwt under our commercial management,
and an average age of approximately 13.5 years.
Our principal focus is the transportation of crude oil and its related refined
dirty petroleum cargoes for major oil companies and major oil trading companies.
We seek to optimize our income and adjust our exposure through actively pursuing
charter opportunities whether through time charters, bareboat charters, sale
and leasebacks, straight sales and purchases of vessels, newbuilding contracts
and acquisitions.
We presently operate VLCCs and Suezmax tankers in the tanker market. Our preferred
strategy is to have some fixed charter income coverage for our fleet, predominantly
through time charters, and trade the balance of the fleet on the spot market.
Due to the very limited availability of time charter contracts, however, our
fleet is mainly trading in the spot market. We focus on minimizing time spent
on ballast by "cross trading" our vessels, typically with voyages
loading in the Persian Gulf discharging in Northern Europe, followed by a trans-Atlantic
voyage to the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and, finally, a voyage from either the Caribbean
or West Africa to the Far East/Indian Ocean. We believe that operating a certain
number of vessels in the spot market, enables us to capitalize on a potentially
stronger spot market as well as to serve our main customers on a regular non
term basis. We believe that the size of our fleet is important in negotiating
terms with our major clients and charterers. We also believe that our large
VLCC and Suezmax fleet enhances our ability to obtain competitive terms from
suppliers, ship repairers and builders and to produce cost savings in chartering
and operations.
Our business strategy is primarily based upon the following principles:
emphasizing operational safety and quality maintenance for all of our vessels;
complying with all current and proposed environmental regulations;
outsourcing technical operations and crewing;
continuing to achieve competitive operational costs;
operating a homogeneous fleet of tankers;
achieving high utilization of our vessels;
achieving competitive financing arrangements;
achieving a satisfactory mix of term charters, contracts of affreightment, or
COAs, and spot voyages; and
developing and maintaining relationships with major oil companies and industrial
charterers.
We have a strategy of extensive outsourcing, which includes the outsourcing
of management, crewing and accounting services to a number of independent and
competing suppliers. Our vessels are managed by independent ship management
companies. Pursuant to management agreements, each of the independent ship management
companies provides operations, ship maintenance, crewing, technical support,
shipyard supervision and related services to us. A central part of our strategy
is to benchmark operational performance and cost level amongst our ship managers.
Independent ship managers provide crewing for our vessels. Currently, our vessels
are crewed with Russian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Romanian, Indian and Filipino
officers and crews, or combinations of these nationalities. Accounting services
for each of our ship-owning subsidiaries are also provided by the ship managers.