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CEO & CFO of TORM discuss advantages of pool system in tanker industry Full article published: 04/15/2003     KLAUS KJÆRULFF & KLAUS NYBORG are the Chief Executive Officer & Chief Financial Officer of A/S Dampskibsselskabet TORM


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TWST: Can we begin with brief historical sketch and introduction to TORM (Copenhagen:TORM.CO; NasdaqNM:TRMD)?

Mr. Kjaerulff: We are a company based and founded in Copenhagen, Denmark in January 1889 by Captain Torm. We were founded as a shipping company and our first ship, which was a steam-driven vessel, was ordered in Germany in 1889. We were listed on the Copenhagen stock exchange as early as 1905; just a couple of days ago in fact we celebrated 98 years as a public company. We have remained continuously listed on the Danish stock exchange, but we also made a parallel listing on the NASDAQ in April, 2002. Over the years, we have developed as a ship-owning company in bulkers, liners and various other types. But today, we are firmly positioned as a product tanker company, representing 80% of our turnover/investments. In addition, we also are a dry bulk owner and operator. We purchased our first product tanker in 1976. Prior to that, we were focusing on the liner business and on dry bulk, but then changed track a little and moved into product tankers. And we have continued down that alley ever since without interruption, either selling or reducing our other business activities along the way. For instance, the last part of our liner business -- a US East coast Gulf service to West Africa with the focus on Nigeria -- was sold to Maersk Sealand in 2002. So we are down to the core businesses of product tankers and bulkers. We bought our first double-hull tank in 1988 -- before double-hulls were required by the 1990 Pollution Act in the United States – and we established our first product tanker pool in 1990 and two additional product tanker pools in 1998. Therefore, today we operate three different sized product tanker pools, comprising in excess of 55 vessels. Within the pool partners, we have between 10-20 ships on order. TORM alone has 4 ships on order, but other partners have a substantial number of ships on order that will come into our pools. Today, we are the number one product tanker operator in the world when it comes to the number of ships. We have a very moderate fleet with an age profile of 5.4 years. We have built and introduced new ships continuously over recent years and sold off older tonnage. So we really have an up-and-running fleet that is at the top of the list from an environmental safety aspect, and, together with our pool partners, we are proud to say that we serve the major oil companies of the world. We are expanding year-by-year with a strategic goal to reach 100 ships in the pools by end 2004, of which we should own about 30 vessels. Next year, I think we will reach about 22 tankers owned by TORM ourselves, and the pool is also steadily expanding, so we have a good chance of reaching 100 ships by end of 2004 to cement our major position in the world product tanker market.

TWST: Putting much of this together, can you underline your key objectives for the next 12 to 18 months? Not to put you in a position of forecasting, but can you give potential investors an idea of how they can track your progress?

Mr. Kjaerulff: First of all, I am pleased to say that in the last four consecutive years our company has been very profitable and the net asset value has being growing year-by-year. We are very pleased with the strategy that we have established and are pursuing, as I have earlier described. However, it is also a fact that we have not been satisfied with the development of our share price over that same period of time. So when you look and focus on it from a shareholder's point of view, it is one of our goals in the next 12-18 months to improve on the liquidity of TORM shares and by extension to improve on the share price. That is an area we will be concentrating on quite a lot. I think our CFO, Klaus Nyborg, has something to add here.


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This interview is a small excerpt from a comprehensive interview published in The Wall Street Transcript on 04/15/03. For more information call (212) 952 7400. The Wall Street Transcript does not endorse any of the comments made by interviewees, and does not make stock recommendations.

Copyright 2003, Wall Street Transcript Corp.

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