Duke Royalty says Temarca BV successfully launches third vessel

AIM-traded Duke Royalty said that, on 2 June, Temarca B.V. successfully launched its maiden voyage for its third vessel, the Carmen.

This demonstrated the rapid progress made by Temarca since Duke's €8m royalty investment, which was concluded in April 2017.

In response to the growing demand from Temarca's customers, Duke said that all three vessels were now sailing on the Rhine and Danube and each had sold out their total capacity for the remaining sailing season for 2017 as well as for the entire sailing season for 2018.

The sailing season encompasses 220 days from April-October, but during the non-sailing season, Temarca was able to generate incremental revenues from its vessels by using them as mobile hotels as well as for corporate receptions and other functions.

The financing provided growth for Duke's shareholders by participating in the revenue growth of Temarca on an annual basis.

Given that the contracted sailing days for the Temarca fleet had grown 33%, Duke was confident it would benefit from the maximum possible increase in its royalty payment of 6% when the annual reset was made in July 2018.

"Additionally, given that the contracted sailing days for the fleet in 2018 is already up 9 per cent. from 2017, this bodes well for a further increase in the royalty payment at the annual reset in July 2019 as well."

In addition, Duke said it continued to work towards securing its second royalty investment and looks forward to being able to update the market in this regard in due course.

At 12:57 BST, shares in Duke Royalty were up 0.64% to 39.5p.