OMI ACQUIRES CONTRACTS FOR TWO SUEZMAX TANKERS

OMI ACQUIRES CONTRACTS FOR TWO SUEZMAX TANKERS    OMI Corporation, based in Stamford, Conn., announced on Wednesday that it had agreed to acquire shipbuilding contracts for two Suexmax tankers to be built by Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd.
   OMI has already taken delivery of seven Suexmax tankers since mid-1998. “We are excited to acquire high quality assets in advance of when we could by ordering new ships,” said Craig B. Stevenson, OMI’s president, chief executive officer, and chairman of its board of directors. “With the seven Suexmaxes and these new ones, we should continue to have the youngest fleet in the world.”
   The acquisition price is $53.8 million per vessel. OMI will issue approximately 4.05 million shares at $7 a share as partial payment, and will guarantee the price performance of its stock for four months after the closing of the deal, which is expected in the next few weeks.
   The contracts taken on were for the first two of six tankers ordered by subsidiaries of Kristian Gerhard Jebson Skibsrederi AS. The vessels will be delivered in September and October of 2002.