Seaspan reports $10.1 million 4th quarter profit

Seaspan reports $10.1 million 4th quarter profit Non-operating vessel owner Seaspan Corp. Thursday reported fourth quarter net earnings of $10.1 million on revenue of $35.6 million.
   'During the fourth quarter of 2006, Seaspan passed a number of important milestones in its development,' said Gerry Wang, Seaspan's chief executive officer. 'We took delivery of two vessels from our originally contracted fleet and purchased our first second-hand vessels when we completed a sale and charter-back transaction for four ships with A.P. Moller-Maersk. These acquisitions brought the total number of Seaspan vessels in operation to 23.
   'We completed our first follow-on equity offering during the quarter, raising $235.1 million in net proceeds to fund the growth of our company ' We arranged to purchase a total of 18 vessels at an estimated cost of $950.0 million during 2006, nearly doubling the size of our contracted fleet and increasing our steady state EBITDA by approximately $105.0 million annually.
   'We also executed two new credit facilities totaling $583.4 million and completed our follow-on equity offering to finance our growth. We are very proud of our many achievements for our first full year of operations as a public company and look forward to continuing with our strategic growth plan in 2007,' Wang said.
   For the year, Seaspan posted net earnings of $35.6 million and revenue of $118.5 million.