Global Ship Lease, Inc. (NYSE:GSL) took delivery of a 2004-built, 8,063 TEU containership, the OOCL Qingdao. Upon delivery, the vessel commenced a timecharter back to Orient Overseas Container Line (UK) Limited, an affiliate of the seller, for 36 to 39 months at a rate of $34,500 per day. With this addition, the company's fleet stands at 19 vessels with a total capacity of 82,475 TEU.
"Delivery of this vessel marks another important step for Global Ship Lease, expanding our annual EBITDA by $9.4 million and increasing our contracted revenue stream by between $37.7 and $40.9 million, while strengthening our existing relationship with a world-class liner company in OOCL," said Ian Webber, CEO, Global Ship Lease. "The successful execution of our growth strategy has added more than 20% to GSL's EBITDA capacity since the third quarter of 2014. We continue to evaluate further opportunities to accretively grow the fleet during a time of cyclically low asset values. We also remain focused on securely passing the relevant financial test in 2015 that will enable us to initiate a dividend."