Hamburg owner Ernst Russ has used its recently acquired majority ownership in a fleet of container ships to sell one of them.
The German company added 10% to its stake in an unnamed holding company at the end of December.
This gave it an indirect majority interest of 55% in the feeder portfolio, which consists of 11 800-teu vessels and a 1,800-teu ship.
Ernst Russ said it has now sold the 801-teu Dance (built 2006) for an undisclosed price.
VesselsValue assesses the Dance as worth $13.3m.
A docking for class renewal took place recently.
Despite the operational challenges imposed by the coronavirus pandemic, the handover went smoothly, the seller said.
No buyer has been named due to confidentiality clauses.
Strong demand for feeders
"We assume that the charter rates of our fleet will remain at a high level in the coming months. We still see an ongoing and particular strong demand for the small feeder vessels," said Ernst Russ chief executive Robert Gartner.
"It remains our goal to continue to expand our fleet and to secure stable and sustainable added value and earnings for our shareholders and investors. To this end, we are exploiting the opportunities that the market offers us in a flexible manner," he added.
The majority of the now 11-ship fleet are ice-class feeders, meaning they can be used in Baltic Sea traffic.
The fleet previously contributed to the owner's results through equity accounting, but will now be fully consolidated.
The share acquisition deal is expected to boost Ebitda by between €20 and €23m ($26m) per year.
Revenue will rise by up to €44m.
Healthy profit ahead for 2022
Ernst Russ has also issued a forecast for 2022, which should see revenue come in between €140 and €145m, and Ebitda in the range of €67m to €72m.
In addition, Gartner has had his contract extended, although no details were given.
In November, Ernst Russ' second-biggest shareholder, Hamburg Commercial Bank, offloaded its 16.1% stake in the company after share prices peaked in the third quarter.
Ernst Russ is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the Hanseatic Stock Exchange, where its stock rose to a peak of €4.38 in September from €1.31 at the start of the year.
The company, formerly known as HCI Capital, was partly taken over in 2017 by the Dohle Group, which remains the majority shareholder in the increasingly profitable Hamburg shipowner with its 38.2% stake.
