Seaspan splashes $146 million on boxship acquisition

Containership owner and operator Seaspan Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Atlas Corp., revealed it was spending approximately $146 million in cash on the purchase of two 13,000 TEU containerships.

As disclosed, the vessel purchase will be financed from additional borrowings as well as cash on hand.

Seaspan expects to take delivery of the containerships, built in 2010 and 2011, in Q3 2020, subject to customary closing conditions. Once delivered, both ships will operate under long-term charters with a leading global liner.

“The transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to Atlas’ earnings per diluted share and increase long-term contracted revenue by over $150 million while maintaining a strong net debt to equity ratio of approximately 1.2x,” Seaspan said.

“Despite the extreme market conditions, we will have successfully acquired a total of 13 high-quality vessels backed by long-term charters with three different leading global liners over the past year and during the height of COVID-19.

“This is a true testament to our resilient business model and best-in-class integrated platform, as well as the committed and creative partnerships with our liner customers who trust us as their scalable, reliable, long-term solutions provider,” Bing Chen, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Seaspan, said.

Pro forma for this acquisition, Seaspan’s global fleet will consist of 125 vessels and approximately 1,049,000 TEU, with total contracted revenue of approximately $4.5 billion and a weighted average remaining lease period of approximately 4 years.