Global Ship Lease, Inc., an owner of containerships, announced its unaudited results for the three and nine-month periods ended September 30, 2025.
Third Quarter of 2025 and Year to Date Highlights and Other Recent Developments
3Q 2025 operating revenue of $192.7 million; up 10.7% on 3Q 2024. 9M 2025 operating revenue of $575.5 million; up 8.9% on 9M 2024.
3Q 2025 net income available to common shareholders of $92.6 million, or $2.59 Earnings per Share (EPS); up 17.5% on 3Q 2024. 9M 2025 net income available to common shareholders of $306.7 million, or $8.60 EPS; up 20.8% on 9M 2024.
3Q 2025 normalized net income (a non-U.S. GAAP financial measure, described below)3 of $93.8 million, or $2.62 normalized EPS³ up 8.3% on 3Q 2024. 9M 2025 normalized net income of $283.2 million, or $7.94 normalized EPS up 8.0% on 9M 2024.
3Q 2025 Adjusted EBITDA (a non-U.S. GAAP financial measure, described below)3 of $130.2 million; up 5.6% on 3Q 2024. 9M 2025 Adjusted EBITDA of $396.7 million; up 6.9% on 9M 2024.
Added $778.0 million of contracted revenues during 9M 2025, bringing total contracted revenues as of September 30, 2025 to $1.92 billion, over a weighted average remaining duration of 2.5 years.
Declared a dividend of $0.625 per Class A common share for the third quarter of 2025, to be paid on or about December 4, 2025 to common shareholders of record as of November 21, 2025 (the “Third Quarter Dividend”). The Board of Directors determined that sustained market demand for GSL’s fleet and the Company’s progress on securing forward fixtures at attractive levels supports a $0.10 per share increase in our quarterly supplemental dividend, amounting to a 19.0% increase in total annualized dividends per share, to $2.50 ($0.625 per quarter), commencing with, and reflected in, the Third Quarter Dividend.
On July 8, 2025, announced updates by three leading credit rating agencies. Moody’s Investor Service maintained its Ba2 Corporate Family Rating for Global Ship Lease, with a stable outlook; S&P Global Ratings affirmed its long-term issuer credit rating of BB+, with a stable outlook; and Kroll Bond Rating Agency (“KBRA”) maintained the Company’s corporate credit rating at BB+, with a stable outlook, while also affirming the BBB/stable investment grade rating and stable outlook for the 5.69% Senior Secured Notes due July 15, 2027 (the “2027 Secured Notes”).
In May 2025 Dimitris Y (5,900 TEU, built 2000) was contracted to be sold for $35.6 million. On October 13, 2025 the vessel was delivered to her new buyers, for a gain of $17.7 million (which will be reflected in our 4Q 2025 results). We have also completed the sales of Tasman (5,900 TEU, built 2000), Akiteta (2,200 TEU, built 2002), and Keta (2,200 TEU, built 2003) for an aggregate gain of $28.3 million; the vessels were delivered to their new owners in the first quarter of 2025.
Took delivery, in January 2025, of Czech, the last in a series of four high-reefer, ECO-9,000 TEU containerships contracted for purchase with charters attached in the fourth quarter of 2024 (“Newly Acquired Vessels”).
Agreed, in March 2025, to an $85.0 million Credit Facility with UBS to fully prepay certain of our outstanding credit facilities which would otherwise have matured between May 2026 and July 2026. The new loan is priced at SOFR + 2.15%, and matures in the second quarter of 2028.
Paid a dividend of $0.525 per Class A common share for the second quarter of 2025 on September 4, 2025.
Approximately $33.0 million of capacity remains available under our opportunistic share repurchase authorization.
George Youroukos, our Executive Chairman, stated: “Throughout 2025, the immense complexity and instability of the geopolitical situation and the heightened uncertainty around trade policy have stood in stark contrast to the consistency and strength of the mid-sized and smaller containership charter market. In this environment, our commitment to maximizing optionality in both our fleet and our balance sheet has continued to serve GSL well, both in terms of growing our quarterly earnings and in our ability to secure additional forward charter coverage at attractive rates for the multi-year period ahead. A growing number of external factors and disruptions is progressively fragmenting and reducing the efficiency of the global containership supply chain and, as a consequence, increasing the number of ships required to move a given quantity of cargo. Diffusion of intermediate and final manufacturing out from China and across Southeast Asia; companies in large consumer economies diversifying the sourcing and geographic origins of goods to manage supply chain risk; China developing and diversifying its end-markets; sudden trade policy changes disrupting or diverting trade flows – all of these factors are driving the liners to seek additional, flexible tonnage to meet the practical needs of their existing business. While routing, timing, and deployments are all in flux, the reality is that containerized trade continues to grow. With idle capacity in the global fleet almost non-existent, we continue to negotiate and sign attractively priced charters off forward positions. 2025 is fully covered, 2026 is approaching full coverage, and our open positions in 2027 are reducing fast. Driven by those newly signed charters that have brought our revenue backlog to nearly $2 billion over an average of 2.5 years, we have decided to once again increase our supplemental quarterly dividend. We are raising it by a further $0.40 per common share on an annualized basis, an uplift of 19%, which will push our overall dividend up to $2.50 per common share, annualized. By way of the supplemental dividend, we have now up-sized our overall dividend three times since 2Q 2024, by an aggregate annualized total of $1.00 per common share, an increase of 67%. We remain both vigilant and disciplined in our assessment of fleet renewal opportunities and believe that we are well positioned to act decisively when the right opportunities present themselves.”
Thomas Lister, our Chief Executive Officer, stated: “Surveying the current landscape of global containerized trade and an unprecedented array of unpredictable factors of potential relevance to our business, our conviction in a strategy of maximizing optionality has only grown stronger. We are continuing to de-lever our fortress balance sheet and achieve extraordinarily low breakeven costs despite an inflationary environment; to sign attractive charters that add to our cashflow and our multi-year backlog; and to combine prudence and agility in our opportunistic fleet renewal, while demonstrating our commitment to return capital to our shareholders. We acknowledge that the unknowns in the market are diverse and potentially material. However, with 2.5 years of fixed-rate charter coverage and financial leverage of 0.5x, we are confident that our disciplined, dynamic approach puts us in an excellent position to manage risks and capitalize on opportunities going forward.”