Seaspan acquires two 15,000 TEU containerships on long-term charters
Seaspan Corporation (“Seaspan”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlas Corp. (“Atlas”) (NYSE:ATCO), on March 3 announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire two young, high-quality 15,000 TEU scrubber-fitted containerships (“the Vessels”) on long-term charter with a long-standing global liner customer. The Vessels, built in 2019, feature industry-leading efficiency and emissions reduction technologies, and are anticipated to be delivered late in the second quarter of 2021.
Bing Chen, Chairman, President and CEO of Seaspan, commented, “This transaction further demonstrates our consistent quality growth through our creative customer partnerships despite the market cycles. Seaspan’s fleet composition is optimized with each new vessel, enabling us to provide our customers with more scale, efficiency, flexibility and reliability. The additions of these high-quality vessels also extend our long-term contracted revenue profile. Together with our recent large number of upcoming newbuilds, we continue to consistently drive quality growth while further differentiating our fully-integrated service offerings and resiliency of our business model.”
The Vessels are anticipated to be financed from additional borrowings as well as cash on hand. As of September 30, 2020, Seaspan’s global fleet consisted of 127 vessels and approximately 1,073,000 TEU, with total contracted revenue of approximately $4.1 billion, and a weighted average remaining lease period of approximately four years. Since December 2020, and with the two Vessels announced today, Seaspan has announced 17 newbuild vessels, including five 12,200 TEU, two 24,000 TEU, 10 15,000 TEU dual-fuel LNG, which will add significant new capacity of 289,000 TEU to our fleet. With these transactions, Seaspan will add 17 vessels to its core 9,000 to 15,000 TEU size category, as well as add two inaugural vessels in the ultra-large 24,000 TEU segment.
About Atlas
Atlas is a leading global asset management company, differentiated by its position as a best-in-class owner and operator with a focus on deploying capital to create sustainable shareholder value. Atlas brings together an experienced asset management team with deep operational and capital allocation experience. We target long-term, risk adjusted returns across high-quality infrastructure assets in the maritime sector, energy sector and other infrastructure verticals. Our two portfolio companies, Seaspan Corporation and APR Energy are unique, industry-leading operating platforms in the global maritime and energy spaces, respectively.
About Seaspan
Seaspan is a leading independent owner and operator of containerships with industry leading ship management services. We charter our vessels primarily pursuant to long-term, fixed-rate, time charters to the world’s largest container shipping liners. As of September 30, 2020, Seaspan’s fleet consists of 127 containerships, representing total capacity of approximately 1,073,000 TEU. Seaspan’s operating fleet of vessels has an average age of approximately seven years and an average remaining lease period of approximately four years, on a TEU-weighted basis.