Global Ship Lease announces new long-term charter agreements between Poseidon Containers and CMA CGM
Global Ship Lease, Inc., a containership charter owner, has announced that Poseidon Containers, with which Global Ship Lease has entered a definitive merger agreement, has agreed five-year charters with CMA CGM for four of its 6,927 TEU containerships, Mary, Kristina, Katherine and Alexandra. The charters will deliver incremental annualized EBITDA of approximately $11.0 million compared to third quarter 2018 contracted rates. The new charter for Mary commenced recently, and the remaining three new charters will commence upon expiry of their existing charters during the first half of 2019. The new five-year charters are expected to generate total EBITDA of approximately $135 million over the five-year contract period.
Ian Webber, Chief Executive Officer of Global Ship Lease, commented, “As we near the closing of our strategic combination, we are pleased to announce Poseidon Containers’ signing of these long-term charters with leading container liner company CMA CGM at levels substantially above their prior contracted rates. Upon closing our transformational combination with Poseidon Containers, the enhanced long-term visibility through 2024 from contracted revenue and cashflow from these charters will strengthen GSL’s balance sheet and contribute to further deleveraging, which, together with increased EBITDA, will drive improvements in financial leverage. We are excited about joining forces with Poseidon Containers; as illustrated by these new charters, the combination will significantly increase our scale and ability to capitalize on favorable fundamentals in the mid-sized and smaller containership segments.”
About Global Ship Lease
Global Ship Lease is a containership charter owner. Incorporated in the Marshall Islands, Global Ship Lease commenced operations in December 2007 with a business of owning and chartering out containerships under mainly long-term, fixed-rate charters to top tier container liner companies.
As of September 30, 2018, Global Ship Lease owned 19 vessels with a total capacity of 85,136 TEU and an average age, weighted by TEU capacity, of 13.7 years. All 19 vessels are fixed on time charters, 17 of which are with CMA CGM. The average remaining term of the charters at September 30, 2018 was 2.1 years or 2.4 years on a weighted basis.
