Box Ships Inc, container ship owners & charterers, issues dividend on its first anniversary as a public listed company.
Mr. Michael Bodouroglou, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Box Ships Inc., commented:
“This quarter marks our one-year anniversary as a public company. During the second quarter of 2012, our earnings per share and adjusted earnings per share were $0.11 and $0.16 per share, respectively, and more importantly I am pleased to announce that the Board of Directors has declared a dividend of $0.26 per share payable on or about August 22, 2012 to shareholders of record on August 15, 2012.
He added: "The containership market has remained challenging, and the brief rebound we witnessed last quarter quickly disappeared. The encouraging news is that freight rates charged by liner companies for the carriage of containers at sea continue to improve year over year, and we expect to see some improvement in the charter market for containerships as we continue to seek suitable employment for the Box Trader and the Box Voyager, most probably for a term of six to nine months.”
Mr. Bodouroglou concluded, “In addition, during the second quarter we agreed to acquire two vessels, the OOCL Hong Kong and the OOCL China, and chartered these vessels back to OOCL at a gross daily rate of $26,800 per vessel for three years, which increased our fleet to nine vessels, and improves our free cash flow and dividend coverage significantly. This transaction also strengthens our balance sheet, expands our chartering base to include OOCL, one of the premier Global liner operators, improves our fixed revenue coverage days significantly, and further staggers the term of our charter contracts.