UK: Global Ship Lease Signs Two Charter Contracts with CMA CGM

Global Ship Lease, Inc., a containership charter owner, yesterday announced it has signed new time charters with CMA CGM for two 4,113 TEU containerships, the 1996-built Ville d’Aquarius and the 1997-built Ville d’Orion.

The vessels will be chartered for approximately eight months at a rate of $9,962 per vessel per day, commencing upon expiration of the current time charters on September 20 and 21, 2012, respectively.

Ian Webber, Chief Executive Officer of Global Ship Lease, said, “We are pleased to have signed new time charters for these two ships with CMA CGM. These agreements are consistent with our strategy of operating our fleet of 17 vessels on fixed rate contracts in order to continue to generate predictable and stable results. With these two new contracts, our fleet continues to be fully time chartered until at least May next year with an average remaining term of 6.6 years, or 7.9 years weighted by TEU capacity, representing $1.1 billion of contracted revenue.”

Mr. Webber continued, “During a challenging market, we are pleased to have secured ongoing employment for these vessels into the second quarter of 2013. This period typically represents the high season for chartering activity and enhances the subsequent remarketing prospects for the two vessels. The seamless transition from current to new charters with CMA CGM ensures that we will not experience any offhire days, incur any costs associated with repositioning these vessels or pay any third party brokerage fees.”

The time charters for the Ville d’Aquarius and the Ville d’Orion were executed under an agreement entered into with CMA CGM, providing Global Ship Lease with the option to obligate CMA CGM to charter the vessels at an index-linked rate, with a floor of $8,500 per day. As part of this agreement, the Company will accelerate the redemption of 63 Series A Preferred Shares of $48,000 each from CMA CGM for $3,024,000. The redemption is to be funded by restricted cash, which can only be used for this purpose, since the proceeds resulted from the exercise of warrants in 2008. These 63 Preferred Shares were originally scheduled for redemption on August 14, 2016.

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Source: Global Ship Lease, July 24, 2012