Greek tonnage provider Costamare has concluded a sale-and-leaseback deal with the Bank of Communications Financial Leasing (Bocomm Leasing) for five 12,690TEU vessels that will be on long-term charter to Yang Ming Marine Transport Corporation.
A representative of Bocomm Leasing told Container News that the Chinese finance house had acquired the five ships in May 2020 but would not disclose the purchase price and lease period. The ships had a market value of US$85 million each at the time of the sale to Bocomm Leasing. By industry standards, lease periods for such deals range from five to 10 years.
The five ships are being constructed by Jiangsu Yangzi Xinfu Shipbuilding, a unit of Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, the largest non-state-owned Chinese ship builder. Deliveries of the vessels are scheduled from July 2020 to May 2021.
Yang Ming had committed to the long-term charter of the newbuildings in July 2018, at which time the Taiwanese liner operator also agreed to charter five 11,000TEU ships from Japanese tonnage provider Shoei Kisen Kaisha, which is constructing the vessels at its affiliate, Imabari Shipbuilding.
Costamare is likely to use the proceeds to repay existing bank loans attached to the vessels’ newbuilding contracts.
The Greek owner announced net profits of US$32.8 million for Q1 2020 but said that the Covid-19 pandemic has adversely impacted the international container shipping industry. Costamare operates operates 70 vessels of between 1,078TEU and 14,424TEU, including the five ships that are chartered to Yang Ming.
Martina Li
Asia Correspondent
