Atlas Corp — the parent company of container ship owner Seaspan Corp — has boosted its earnings while growing its newbuilding programme to 114 vessels.
The shipowner also extended leases on 18 operating vessels, taking the fleet under its control to 131 ships. It also sold one boxship for $32.8m.
London-based Atlas posted $169m in net income for the first quarter, up from $97.6m for the same period last year. Revenue grew 9.8% from a year ago to $408m.
Adjusted earnings per share came in at $0.39.
“Seaspan strengthened its customer partnership with a global liner by forward fixing charters for 18 vessels, leveraging our creative customer solutions and differentiated business model,” chief executive Bing Chen said in a statement.
“Despite the pandemic and European conflict, Seaspan continued diligently executing its newbuild program with one newbuild delivery in April ahead of schedule.
“Our entire newbuild programme remains on track thanks to our experienced teams and integrated platform that have now delivered 114 newbuilds.”
APR Energy, its mobile power generation segment, lowered Atlas’ revenue by 42.7% due to an injunction at one of its project sites that began in March 2021, Atlas said.
“With our customers’ trusted partnerships, our dedicated team and differentiated business model, we are well-positioned to drive future quality growth and continue delivering increasing shareholder value,” Chen said.
Atlas’ board of directors declared an unchanged quarterly dividend of $0.125 per common share on 7 April.
“Atlas reported results which were slightly better than we had expected, but below consensus,” Stifel analyst Ben Nolan wrote in a note on Wednesday.
“There were numerous puts and takes, with APR underperforming and operating costs higher than expected, but interest and depreciation were below what we had expected.”
He said he was surprised that Atlas had no major announcements in its earnings report since it has been widely reported that Seaspan ordered eight new 8,000-teu ships for about $1bn on long-term contract to Mediterranean Shipping Co.
“With somewhat pedestrian results relative to expectations, we anticipate ATCO shares likely to trade in line with or below the peer group tomorrow,” Nolan wrote.
