Danaos plans public stock offering

Danaos plans public stock offering    Danaos Corp., a large containership charterer, is planning a public stock offering.
   The Piraeus-based company has a fleet of 27 containerships with total capacity of 116,115 TEU, and counts Maersk Line, COSCO, Hapag-Lloyd, CMA-CGM, Hyundai, APL-NOL, CSAV Norasia, Yang Ming, Wan Hai and China Shipping as customers. The company has newbuilding contracts or purchase agreements for 16 additional containerships with aggregate capacity of 84,704 TEUs that will be delivered between 2006 and 2000.
   The company said in its F-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that its strategy is “to charter our containerships under multiyear, fixed-rate time charters to a geographically diverse group of liner companies, including many of the largest such companies globally.”
   The company is principally owned by the Coustas Family.
   The company’s strategy and public offering is similar to that of Seaspan Corp. another containership charterer, which went public last year.
   Underwriters for the offering include Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Dahlman Rose, Jefferies, Fortis Securities, and Nomura.
   The Web site https://www.seekingalpha.com    said the offering is expected to raise about $198 million.