Atlas Corp, the parent company of shipowner Seaspan Corp, has reaped $224.3m from sales of nine container ships.
The disposals, coupled with growing charter revenues, helped the New York Stock Exchange-listed company double profits in the second quarter.
Net earnings rose to $140m for the three months to the end of June, up from $66m in the same period last year.
Revenues rose by 4.9% to $413.3m and adjusted Ebitda edged up to $279.5m, in line with expectations.
“We continued our strong quarterly performance amongst a backdrop of global market turmoil, demonstrating the resilience of our business model,” said Atlas chief executive Bing Chen.
Seaspan will continue to manage the operations of six of the vessels it has sold, which the company did not name.
The results were lifted by the delivery of 11 vessels since the second quarter of 2021.
“Seaspan’s customers continue to value our long-term partnerships with the forward fixing of three operating vessels in the second quarter and an additional 14 since the end of the quarter,” Chen said.
All eyes on private bid
Seaspan is the largest global container ship lessor, operating a fleet of 127 vessels with a total capacity of 1.16m teu.
It has a further 67 vessels under construction, including four 7,700-teu vessels that remain subject to closing conditions.
These will increase its fleet capacity to 1.95m teu when delivered.
Seaspan has made strategic divestments of 10 vessels this year, generating an additional $257.1m in cash flow, chief financial officer Graham Talbot said.
The company has a gross contracted cash flow balance of $17.8bn.
The results come after leading Atlas shareholders and Japanese liner company Ocean Network Express (ONE) revealed plans to take the company private.
Atlas did not give further details, but said it had established a special committee of independent directors to consider the proposal.
On 5 August, Poseidon Acquisition Corp, an entity formed by certain affiliates of Fairfax Financial Holdings, the Washington family and Atlas chairman David Sokol, revealed details of an all-cash $3.64bn takeover offer.
ONE — the Singapore-based container ship operation of Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines, NYK Lines and K Line — is also participating in the bid.
The offer is being made at $14.45 per share, compared with just under $14 today.
Fairfax Financial, the Washington family and Sokol, together with certain of their respective affiliates, collectively own around 68% of the outstanding shares.
In April, Fairfax Financial exercised warrants to purchase 25m common shares for $8.05 each, or a total price of $201.3m, giving it 45.1% of Atlas’ shares.
