Box Ships to acquire two container ships from OOCL
Athens-headquartered Box Ships Inc. (NYSE: TEU) (the "Company"), a global shipping company specializing in the seaborne transportation of containers, announced that it has entered into agreements with subsidiaries of Orient Overseas Container Line Ltd. (OOCL) to acquire two 5,344 TEU post-Panamax container vessels, the 1995-build OOCL Hong Kong and the 1996-build OOCL China, the Company press-release said.
The purchase price per vessel is US$31.155 million, inclusive of fees and the expected dates of delivery for both vessels to the Company are to take place no later than July 14, 2012.
Both vessels will be chartered to OOCL for a period of thirty-six (36) months plus or minus thirty days (30) at a net daily rate of US$26,465. The employment of the two vessels is anticipated to generate approximately US$57.0 million of net revenues for the agreed period of the charters.
To finance this acquisition, the Company issued $40.0 million of 9.75% Series B Cumulative Redeemable Perpetual Preferred Shares, or the Series B preferred shares, to our Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Michael Bodouroglou. The Series B preferred shares have a dividend rate of 9.75% per annum per $30.00 of Liquidation Preference per share. Each of the 1,333,333 Series B preferred shares shall receive a five year warrant, for no additional consideration, to purchase one share of our common stock at $7.74, the closing price of our shares of common stock on June 11, 2012. Our Series B preferred shares are redeemable at our option at the Liquidation Preference price until September 1, 2012, and thereafter for a premium. In the event the Company has not redeemed the Series B preferred shares by June 30, 2015, any holder of then outstanding Series B preferred shares shall receive, on a pro-rata basis, common stock representing, in the aggregate at the time, 5% of the Company’s common shares.