Global Ship Lease announced that B. Riley has purchased 3 million Class A common shares from Kelso at a price of $19.17 per share, a discount of 5% to the closing price on August 31, 2021. 521,650 of the Acquired Shares were subsequently purchased from B. Riley at the same cost of $19.17 by Global Ship Lease’s Executive Chairman George Youroukos, and a further 521,650 were purchased by the Company from B. Riley at the same cost and will be retired, reducing the issued and outstanding shares of the Company to 36,216,803. Following these transactions, Kelso’s remaining holdings of Global Ship Lease have been reduced to approximately 4.9% of shares outstanding, while Mr. Youroukos’s holding has increased to approximately 6.4% of shares outstanding.
George Youroukos, Executive Chairman of Global Ship Lease, commented, “At a time when we have dramatically increased contracted cashflow from higher charter rates over longer terms and have meaningfully grown our fleet through acquisitions, we are delighted to have this opportunity to repurchase a sizable block of shares at a material discount to our net asset value. Through this transaction, enabled by B. Riley’s deep understanding and clear confidence in our business, we have reduced Kelso’s remaining shareholding to under 5% and opportunistically invested in our own shares in a manner that is beneficial and accretive to all Global Ship Lease stakeholders. Kelso has been an incredible partner to the Company and its predecessor for 11 years, helping us to accretively grow net asset value, with both capital and guidance. Moving forward in a container shipping market that looks set to remain robust well into 2022, our best-in-class platform continues to present us with a wide range of opportunities that we believe will allow us to further grow our earnings, accretively expand our fleet, strengthen our balance sheet, and otherwise improve on Global Ship Lease’s leadership as an owner of mid-sized and smaller containerships.”