US-listed Costamare marked the best earnings in its 47 years of history with a special dividend to shareholders.
The payment was announced on Wednesday as the owner of more than 120 container ships and bulkers reported record net income of $404m for 2021, turning around a loss of $21.6m in the previous year.
Profit soared to $153m in the fourth quarter alone, up from $19.3m in the corresponding period of 2020.
Costamare’s special dividend of $0.50 per share comes on top of the company’s regular payout of $0.115 per share for the quarter.
“While rewarding our shareholders as a result of increased cash flows and profitability, the payment of that dividend is not expected in any way to affect our capacity to continue growing opportunistically in a volatile market environment,” commented Costamare chief financial officer Gregory Zikos.
The Costis Konstantakopoulos-led company, which made a splash in dry bulk markets building from scratch a fleet of 46 such vessels since last year, has ample financial legroom to expand further if it wishes to.
Costamare’s liquidity pile of more than $550m includes $193m in undrawn funds from two “hunting license” loan facilities that the company concluded in September and December. Both continue to be available to the company , with the first expiring in June and the other in December.
Zikos said that his company continues regarding bulkers as a “market with favourable supply and demand dynamics underpinned by a historically low orderbook”.
Lucrative boxship sales
While piling up on bulkers, Costamare rakes in profit from a string of asset plays in its traditional container ship segment, in which it currently owns 77 vessels and has another eight newbuildings under construction.
Costamare’s fourth-quarter results include a $14m capital gain from the sale of the 4,992-teu Zim New York (built 2002), which is now trading as MSC Hong Kong.
The company unveiled on Wednesday that it has agreed to offload six more ageing container ships going forward, in transactions that will generate about $220m in capital gains.
A deal to offload the 6,644-teu Maersk Kalamata (built 2003) and the 6,648-teu Sealand Washington (built 2000) will yield the company about $150m in gross proceeds by the first quarter of 2023 — the latest date at which the pair will be delivered to its new owner.
Costamare expects $183m in gross proceeds from the separate sale, set to close by the end of 2022, of the 6,648-teu sistership trio Sealand Michigan, Sealand Illinois and York (all built 2000).
Much sooner than that, by the end of March, Costamare will part with the 2,458-teu Messini (built 1997) in a transaction generating $17.8m in capital gains.
Multi-year charters
On the boxship chartering front, Costamare is already looking forward to what will happen in 2023.
The company has covered virtually all its open days for the remainder of 2022 and is currently “in the process of arranging employment for the vessels coming off charter next year” Zikos said.
During a stellar 2021 for boxships, Costamare entered into 35 chartering agreements generating $1.4bn in additional revenue to boost its total contract backlog to $3.4bn, with a weighted remaining time charter duration of 4.2 years.
Some particularly lucrative chartering deals emerged Costamare during the last quarter of the year.
In one of them, an unidentified charterer agreed to pay $41,500 per day for three years to employ — from late 2023 onwards — a trio of post-panamaxes built in 1996.
In another deal, two Costamare vessels built in 2003 will earn $53,000 per day for three years, with charterers accepting to take delivery of them in October 2022.
