Global Ship Lease (GSL) Reports Q1 Revenues Beat

Global Ship Lease (NYSE: GSL) reported Q1 revenue for the quarter came in at $72.98 million versus the consensus estimate of $70.69 million.

George Youroukos, Executive Chairman of Global Ship Lease, stated, “The strong containership market momentum of late 2020 has further accelerated in 2021, positioning the sector for levels of profitability not seen in many years. While factors such as port delays, shortage of equipment, and congestion in the Suez Canal have provided support at the margin in tying up containership capacity, the present market conditions are based on the fundamentals of underlying strong demand growth set against limited supply, resulting in effectively full employment of the global containership fleet. Given the multi-year construction time for new containerships, we expect constrained supply to persist through at least the medium term – particularly in the workhorse mid-sized and smaller classes where we focus – resulting in continued market tightness.”

“In the meantime, we continue to agree new charters for lengthening durations at increasingly attractive rates. We have also maintained our disciplined but active approach to growth through opportunistic secondhand vessel acquisitions, utilizing our balance sheet and strong cashflows to add immediately accretive, charter-attached tonnage with compelling upside potential and limited downside risk. We have made continued progress in this regard, having already taken delivery of four of the seven 6,000 TEU ships that we have agreed this year to acquire, and we remain optimistic that further such opportunities exist in the market. Having transformed our balance sheet, established a track record of continuous, disciplined growth, substantially expanded our charter durations and contracted revenue, and with today’s declaration of an increase to $0.25 per common share of the previously announced sustainable quarterly dividend based upon reliable, long-term cashflows, Global Ship Lease is advancing on all fronts as we utilize the strengths of our fleet and charter portfolio to create lasting value for our shareholders.”

Ian Webber, Chief Executive Officer of Global Ship Lease, commented, “Even as we have remained very active in pursuing growth and additional long-term charter cover, we have also taken the opportunity of the highly supportive market backdrop to further strengthen our balance sheet, reduce our cost of capital, and enhance our overall financial resilience and capacity to pursue opportunistic growth. In the first four months of 2021, by the full redemption of our restrictive 2022 Notes and our other refinancing initiatives, we have refinanced $330.6 million of debt, removed all but $54.4 million of maturities through end 2022, and dramatically improved our debt service and amortization profile while reducing our blended cost of debt from 6.4% to 5.5%. With these enhancements, an improved credit rating, the initiation of a sustainable quarterly dividend at an increased level due to our fleet expansion and the continuing success in rechartering ships at higher rates for longer periods, and increased trading liquidity enabled by our improved free float as a result of our recent equity offerings, we believe that we have materially improved Global Ship Lease’s attractiveness as an investment at this very exciting time in our history.”

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