John Fredriksen’s Ship Finance International has swooped for a pair of giant container vessels to close a busy year of expansion in the market.
The move for a brace of 19,400-teu ships built in 2016 is the company’s fourth significant containership deal of 2018 and takes its investment past the $1bn mark.
While Ship Finance did not identify the vessels, it has revealed they have contracts worth around $470m and the charterer has a purchase obligation at the end of the contracts.
Ole B. Hjertaker, chief executive of Ship Finance Management, said: "This new acquisition broadens our relationship with one of the world's largest liner companies.
“Over the last nine months we have added more than $1.2bn to our charter backlog in a series of accretive acquisitions.”
Ship Finance is investing in the region of $15m in equity in each of the new ships, both of which have lease financing attached.
“We believe that our strong balance sheet and ability to source attractively priced capital will allow us to continue to grow our charter backlog and cash flow visibility going forward,” he said.
Hjertaker could not be reached for further comment at the time of writing today.
Only eight vessels of a similar size were built in 2016, all of which are on charter to MSC. They are owned by Minsheng Bank, Bocom Leasing and Idan Ofer.
Ship Finance has dusted off its cheque book this year after the successful restructuring of fellow Fredriksen company, and one of its offshore counter parties, Seadrill.
Its first action came in March with the purchase of a fleet of feeder vessels.
This was followed in May by the cash and shares deal for four 14,000-teu vessels from NS Lemos.
Three 10,600-teu ships built in 2015 were added to the tally in August, with Hjertaker telling TradeWinds further deals were in the works, across various segments.
While Fredriksen is best known as a tanker owner, Ship Finance has 45 ships in the liner segment, compared with nine tankers, 22 bulkers and eight offshore units.
Its containership clients include Maersk, MSC and MOL.
