First Ship Lease Trust (FSL Trust) has exited the container shipping segment.
The Singapore-listed company has hived off three traditional panamax containerships for an undisclosed price.
The 4,250-teu FSL Eminence, FSL Elixir and YM Enhancer (all built 2008) were sold to an unnamed third-party.
The vessels are estimated to be worth less than $23m en bloc, according to VesselsValue.
That puts them on a par with their scrap-related values of $7.5m each.
The FSL Eminence and FSL Elexir were delivered to FSL Trust in May and June after completion of their charters with Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp.
They will be delivered to their buyers as soon as practically possible, FSL Trust said.
The YM Enhancer remains on charter to the Taiwanese operator and will be delivered on completion of the charter.
12 years
FSL Trust entered the container sector in May 2008 when it purchased the three containerships from Yang Ming for a total price of $210m.
The vessels were leased back to Yang Ming for 12 years, with a purchase option at the expiry of the term.
FSL Trust previously disposed of four other containerships after completion of their long-term charters.
The 1,200-teu Cape Ferro and Cape Falcon (both built 2003) were sold in 2017 and 2018 to Greece's Conbulk Shipping and Germany's MPC Group.
Two other traditional panamax boxships were earlier sold after the expiration of a charter with the Evergreen Group.
The move leaves FSL Trust as a pure tanker owner, although the company has been shedding vessels in this sector too.
In the first quarter, FSL Trust sold the 109,670-dwt tankers FSL Piraeus and FSL Perth (both built 2006) and the 115,000-dwt FSL Shanghai (built 2007).
FSL Trust recorded a net profit of $1.3m in the second quarter, in spite of $3.27m in impairments on five ships.
This compared with a profit of $2.03m between January and March 2019.
