Danaos to Acquire Three Containerships
EDanaos Corporation announced that it has signed contracts to acquire three 4,814 TEU vessels from A.P. Moller-Maersk Group. These vessels, the MC Kinney Maersk, the Mayview Maersk and the Madison Maersk, were delivered to A.P. Moller-Maersk Group from the Odense Staalskibsverft shipyards in 1991. Upon delivery to Danaos these vessels will be renamed to Maersk Marathon, Maersk Messologi and Maersk Mytilini respectively. The acquisition cost will be $43.15 million per vessel and they are expected to be delivered to Danaos on December 11, December 17, and December 21, 2006 respectively. The acquisition will be financed through existing credit facilities and own funds. Subsequent to the acquisition of these three vessels, Danaos' total fleet will increase to 31 containerships aggregating 140,137 TEU. Furthermore, the company has on order 15 additional containerships aggregating 75,124 TEU with scheduled deliveries up to the end of 2009.Danaos also announced that it has arranged five-year time charter agreements for all three vessels with A.P. Moller-Maersk Group at the rate of $23,450 per vessel per day. After the initial five-year time charter periods, A.P. Moller-Maersk Group will have four consecutive one-year options to re-charter each ship for $22,400 per day, $21,400 per day, $20,400 per day and $20,400 per day respectively. Each new vessel is expected to contribute, in the first twelve months following acquisition, approximately $8.4 million in incremental revenues and approximately $6 million in incremental EBITDA. For this purpose, EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, shall mean net earnings before interest, un-drawn credit facility fees, taxes, depreciation and amortization of deferred financing fees. All three vessels have already performed their five-year dry-docking planned maintenance in 2006.