Oslo-listed shipowner MPC Container Ships (MPCC) has bagged $77.7m in gross proceeds from vessel sales and early redeliveries of chartered-out ships.
The Hamburg-based company said it has reached a “commercial agreement” for the redelivery of the 2,742-teu AS Carlotta (built 2006) and 2,824-teu Carpathia (built 2003).
The shipowner has secured $31.6m in consideration from the sale and early redelivery of the Carpathia.
A further $25.2m in cash has been agreed for redelivery of the AS Carlotta, which will be handed back two years early.
A third vessel, the 2,742-teu AS Cleopatra (built 2006), is being sold for $20.9m.
MPCC, which co-owned two of the vessels with a Hamburg-based investment company called Bluewater, will receive net proceeds of $49.8m from the deals after “joint venture effects”.
The extra expense relates to joint venture consolidation and transaction costs, the company said.
Growing trend
Pasha Group is redelivering two of the vessels just months after the US-based company took on long but expensive charters at the start of the year.
That points to a growing trend of container ship charter counterparties seeking to hand back ships earlier than scheduled, some of which are potentially unable or unwilling to pay the high rates agreed earlier in the year.
The AS Carlotta, which will remain wholly owned by MPCC, was one of several vessels that Pasha chartered in January.
The operator’s charters are backed by US retail giant Costco, which revealed it is taking a $93m charge in its first fiscal quarter ending 20 November as a result of downsizing its charter shipping activities.
Pasha had booked the AS Carlotta for 36 months at a rate of $42,000 per day through to September 2025.
That would have been enough to rake in a further $41m in charter revenue. Now the vessel will be redelivered in January, after which the vessel will be open for new charters.
The Carpathia had been fixed to Pasha for three years also at $42,000 per day with the charter set to expire in May 2025. The vessel has been redelivered to MPCC and will be delivered to its new owner later this month.
The AS Cleopatra was on charter to Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd at $33,500 per day through to August 2024. The vessel is expected to be delivered to its new owner in January 2023.
MPCC chief executive Constantin Baack said the deals were “in line with our strategy for portfolio optimisation and rational capital allocation”.
“By reducing the amount of joint venture vessels, we further simplify and strengthen our corporate structure,” Baack said.
“In addition, we retain the future potential upside from our fully owned vessel, AS Carlotta.”
The company intends to declare a dividend of $0.07 per share, payable in February 2023, as a result of the deals.
