Bermuda-based Frontline Ltd, the world’s largest operator of supertankers, reported its first quarterly profit in a year, after charter rates for the ships rose.First-quarter net income was $7.18 million, or nine cents a share, compared with a fourth-quarter loss of $343.7 million, or $4.41, the company said in a statement on Friday.Profit fell 54 percent from a year earlier. Frontline also lost money in 2011’s second and third quarters. First-quarter sales slid 29 percent to $167.3 million.Frontline, led by John Fredriksen, may be an “abandoned vehicle” as Frontline 2012 Ltd, formed by separating the fleet, becomes the shipping billionaire’s growth venture, Wells Fargo said yesterday. Frontline 2012 said yesterday it would take over 16 contracts to buy new tankers and later expand into shipping dry-bulk commodities and liquefied petroleum gas.“Frontline will continue to remain cautious and focus its resources on the present activities until a clearer sign of recovery can be seen in the tanker market,” the company said.Its supertankers earned an average of $25,600 a day last quarter, compared with $19,100 in the previous period, Frontline said. The ships need $24,100 to break even. Rates on the benchmark Middle East-to-Asia voyage are about $25,000 so far in the current quarter, according to the statement.Mr Fredriksen separated the fleet in December to avoid running out of cash after returns from carrying oil plunged. Daily earnings for supertankers on the benchmark route dropped 53 percent last year, retreating for a second year, according to figures from the London-based Baltic Exchange.Frontline said investors will get no dividend for the first quarter. The company scrapped the payout in the fourth quarter.Frontline 2012 Ltd plans to expand into dry-bulk and liquefied petroleum gas shipping as prices of new vessels fall below construction costs.The tanker operator set a three-year goal of forming a “global leading commodity shipping company”.Frontline 2012 said it’s in talks with main shareholder Hemen Holding Ltd on taking over 16 contracts worth $578 million to build tankers plus options for eight more and seeking to raise $200 million in equity for the transaction.While its board may consider spinning off or separating different business areas as markets evolve, executives see value in a “more diversified platform”, Frontline 2012 said.Prices for new vessels are “historically low,” said the company, formed when Fredriksen split Frontline Ltd in two in December to withstand plunging tanker rates.“We see Frontline 2012 at the starting line of a significant acquisition spree that will build the company to a new force to be reckoned with,” Erik Nikolai Stavseth, an analyst at Arctic Securities ASA in Oslo, said in an e-mailed note. Fredriksen may have as much as $3 billion to spend after selling shares of Bermuda-based oil-rig operator Seadrill Ltd in March, Stavseth estimated.