Costamare Signs Contracts for Five Charter-Backed Newbuild Containerships and Two Secondhand

Greek ship owning company Costamare Inc has signed shipbuilding contracts for five charter-backed containerships at Jiangsu Yangzijiang Shipbulding in China.

Each vessel will be approximately 12,690 TEU capacity. Delivery is scheduled from the second quarter of 2020 to the second quarter of 2021, at which point the vessels will commence ten-year time charter contacts with Yang Ming Marine Transport.

The acquisition is expected to be financed through a combination of cash on hand and debt, Costamare said.

In addition, Costamare announced it has also agreed to purchase two secondhand, wide-beam containerships to be chartered to Maersk Line for a period of seven years upon delivery later this year.

The vessels, M/V Megalopolis and M/V Marathopolis, were built in 2013 and each has a TEU capacity of 5,000.

Delivery to Costamare is expected in September 2018 at the latest. The company says the acquisition of the two vessels will initially be financed with cash on hand, however, the company says it is in advanced discussions with a European financial institution regard the financing of the vessels.

“We are pleased to expand our valued relationship with Yang Ming through the completion of our latest newbuilding transaction. At the same time, we are renewing our fleet with modern secondhand vessels backed by seven year charters to Maersk Line,” commented Gregory Zikos, Chief Financial Officer of Costamare.

“In aggregate, these new transactions provide us with additional contracted revenues of approximately US $650 million and further extend our contract coverage to approximately 4 years,” Zikos added.

Source: gcaptain