Box Ships makes its mark

摘要

Athens-headquartered container ship owner Box Ships Inc. is seeking to grow its market capitalisation and diversify its portfolio. The company - which owns and operates container ships and employs them in period time charter contracts with liner operators -was founded four years ago, after its common stock was approved for listing on the New York Stock Exchange; its IPO occurred on April 14, 2011. The company started with two box ships prior to its IPO. Fast forward to 2014 and its current fleet now consists of nine vessels with a total carrying capacity of 43,925 teu and a teu-weighted average age of 9.3 years. Among the companies it has struck sale and charterback agreements with are MSC, CMA CGM and OOCL (see fleet table). CEO, chairman and president of Box Ships Michael Bodouroglou comments that "most of our sellers are big liner companies which can offer deployment generating an attractive return to us".