Euroseas, an owner and operator of container carrier vessels and provider of seaborne transportation for containerized cargoes, announced that it has agreed to acquire M/V Leo Paramount, a 6,350 teu container vessel built in 2005, for $40 million.
The vessel, which is expected to be delivered to the Company within 2021 and be renamed M/V Marcos V, will be financed by own funds and a bank loan. Contemporaneously with the acquisition, the vessel will enter into a three-year time charter contract at a daily rate of $42,200 with a possible extension for an additional (fourth) year at the option of the charterer at $15,000 per day.
Aristides Pittas, Chairman and CEO of Euroseas commented:
“We are pleased to announce the acquisition of M/V Leo Paramount, an intermediate containership, built in 2005. This acquisition continues our strategy of carefully constructed transactions minimizing the market risk by reducing, by the end of the charter, the cost basis to around its scrap value. The charter contract we have entered into with a first class charterer is expected to contribute about $35 million of EBITDA during the first three years of the contract providing us with a significant return on our investment. Furthermore, depending on the market after the end of the charter in three or four years we may have significant additional upside.
“With a fleet of sixteen feeder and intermediate containerships on the water, after the delivery of the above vessel, and two modern feeder newbuildings expected to be delivered in the first half of 2023, Euroseas reinforces its position as the main US publicly listed company focusing on feeder and intermediate container vessels. We believe, our growing presence in the sector and the public markets provides with a solid platform to consolidate in it other vessels or fleets.”