The First Five Years: 1950-1954 Mr. Yardstick’s Operational Review

Welcome ladies & gentlemen to the Benchmarkco Ltd presentation to discuss the company 1950-1954 five-year results. Starting with the customary disclaimers, time travelers should be aware that in today’s presentation we will be making certain backward looking statements that discuss past events and performance. These statements are subject to risk and uncertainties that could cause results of real companies to deviate from the computations of our virtual operation.

With me today is our CFO Mr Fair Squareview. During today’s meeting I will firstly review our operating performance over the last five years as well as industry trends before I pass on the presentation to Mr Squareview, who shall take you through our financial figures.

Tanker Sector Operational Performance

It is gratifying to inform you that our results throughout the period were 100% in line with industry benchmarks during every single day and minute of operation. This was a truly amazing achievement and I would like to thank our crew and management for their unrivalled consistency. Please turn to Figure 1. Starting with tankers, we launched our operations at the turn of the decade in a freight market that was barely sufficient to cover the cash operating costs of our older, slow speed, inefficient ships. At the same time our more modern ships did manage to earn sufficient revenue to cover cash costs and depreciation but not enough to generate a satisfactory return on capital.

The hostilities that broke out in Korea around mid- 1950 instantly changed the picture. The conflict drew in the major world powers, which in turn fed fears that this may well prove to be a full-dress rehearsal for World War III. The sum result of this was a frantic rush to secure and stockpile all sorts of commodities including oil. The war fever “epidemic” and the consequent clamour for shipping space intensified, leading to a tanker freight rate boom. The building up of supply lines to the theater of operations further added to shipping demand.

This is only an excerpt of The First Five Years: 1950-1954 Mr. Yardstick’s Operational Review

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