Costamare plans IPO to raise $260 million
Greek container ship owner and charterer Costamare Inc. said Wednesday it plans to raise up to $260 million through an initial public offering of stock, saying it wants to use the money to expand and renew its fleet.
Athens-based Costamare said it has a fleet of 41 containerships with aggregate capacity of 211,882 TEUs, “making us one of the largest privately owned containership companies in the world, based on total TEU capacity.” It is owned by Vasileios Konstantakopoulos and his three sons — Konstantinos, Achillefs and Christos.
“We believe that this is a favorable time to acquire newbuilds, as well as high-quality secondhand vessels,” the company said in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
“We also believe that vessel prices today remain at levels that are below their 10-year historical averages, and that the charter market for containerships has shown improvement during 2010,” the company said.
Costamare said it has contracted to acquire four 3,351-TEU secondhand containerships and has entered into agreements to acquire three 9,000-TEU newbuilds.
The company’s customers include A.P. Moller – Maersk, Mediterranean Shipping Co., COSCO, Hapag-Lloyd, Zim and Evergreen.
Costamare plans IPO to raise $260 million
