This summarizes the adjusted EBITDA for approximately $130 million in the third quarter compared to $109 million in the previous quarter. We then move on to the profit and loss statement as reported on the US GAAP. As we have described in previous earnings calls, our accounting statements are different from those of a traditional shipping company. And as our business strategy focuses on long-term charter contracts, a large part of our activities are classified as capital leasing. Therefore, a significant portion of our charter revenues are excluded from US GAAP operating revenues. This includes repayment of investment in sales type, direct financing leases and leaseback assets and revenues from entities classified as investment in associates for accounting purposes.
The third quarter report total operating revenues according to US GAAP of approximately $205 million, which is less than approximately $240 million of charter hire actually received for the reasons just mentioned. During the quarter, the company recorded profit share income of approximately $2.6 million from fuel savings on some of our large container vessels and a car carrier.
– : With the corporate taxes and the tolling taxes in Canada, the company also recorded approximately $2.3 million of taxes in the third quarter related to the Hercules. SFL also expects to pay similar types of customer taxes in Namibia. So overall, and according to US GAAP, the company reported a net profit of approximately $29.3 million or $0.23 per share compared to approximately $17 million or $0.13 per share in the previous quarter. In terms of near-term outlook, we expect lower revenues for Hercules in the fourth quarter due to a long mobilization period from Canada to Namibia, where the rig is due to commence the contract to Gulf Energy shortly. As mentioned previously, revenue from the Hercules were due to US GAAP accounting standards, we recognized only from the drilling commencement date and has mobilization fees will be allocated throughout in respective quarters of drilling operations.
For our car carriers, revenues are set to increase as we had three newbuildings delivering from Q4 to Q2, with the second vessel being delivered from the [indiscernible] China second half of November. Following the handover to Volkswagen of the first and second newbuilding during Q4 and Q2, the SFL conductor and SFL Composer will continue the charters to Volkswagen for another two years plus optional years with an estimated EBITDA contribution of $23.5 million per vessel per year. Moving on to the balance sheet. At quarter end, SFL had approximately $118 million of cash and cash equivalents. Furthermore, the comp and marketable securities approximately $6.2 million vessel market prices at the end of the quarter. During the quarter, the company fully redeemed unlock bond, of which $49 million was outstanding with cash on balance sheet.
The outstanding capital expenditure of approximately $136 million on our three car carriers under construction has been fully financed by $194 million of net sea JOLCO [ph] financing yet to be drawn. During the quarter, the company redelivered the [indiscernible] system following our declaration of a purchase option. The sale had a $10 million positive cash effect, after repayment of secured debt relating to the vessel, and the corresponding book gain of approximately $2 million has been recorded in the third quarter. So based on Q3 numbers, the company had a book equity ratio of approximately 28.4%. Then to conclude, the company delivered another strong quarter with growth in both revenues and EBITDA. The Board has declared a 79th consecutive cash dividend, to increase the dividend to $0.25 per share.
This represents a dividend yield of approximately 9%, based on the closing share price last Friday. The company has a strong balance sheet and liquidity position. So far in 2023, the company secured new financing arrangements of more than $1 billion and we recently repaid unlock bonds, with cash on balance sheet. Furthermore, our three new buildings are fully financed with attractive long-term financing, which will free up additional liquidity up on delivery. Our fixed charge rate backlog currently stands at $3.4 billion, which provides us with strong visibility on our cash flow going forward. And finally, with the Hercules now back in operation and delivery of newbuilding car carriers together, with new contracts for existing vessels this strong revenue generation in the quarters to come assesses delivered and new charters commencing.
And with that, let me conclude the presentation and move on to the Q&A session.
A – Unidentified Company Representative: Thank you, Aksel. We will now open up for a Q&A session. For those of you who are following this presentation through Zoom, please use the raise hand function to ask a question. When your name is called out, please unmute your speaker to ask your question. Thank you.
Unidentified Analyst: Hi, guys. Can you hear me.
Ole Hjertaker: Absolutely
Unidentified Analyst: Thank you. I couldn’t find the raise hand function. So, I figured I’d just hop in. This is Greg Lewis [ph] . How are you?
Ole Hjertaker: Hi, Greg.
Unidentified Analyst: I had a few questions. I was hoping we could walk through. It was good to see the dividend increase. And I guess, two things one is, as you think about managing the trajectory of the dividend over the next I don’t know one to two years, how should we think about balancing potential dividend growth and the drilling rigs just because, it seems — it’s clearly a very cyclical industry. We’re clearly in a strong part of the cycle and those assets look like they’re in a probable of the Hercules looks like it’s going to be able to generate a lot of cash here over the next two to three years, but maybe not as it’s definitely a more volatile asset than say your car carriers or container ships. So just trying to understand, how you think about uses of cash from the Hercules as we recontract this over the next couple of years?
