Norway's GTB Invest purchased for $310 million two 13,100 20-foot equivalent unit vessels on order from Hyundai Heavy Industries, less than three months after taking delivery of its first box ship.
Norway's GTB Invest purchased for $310 million two 13,100 20-foot equivalent unit vessels on order from Hyundai Heavy Industries, less than three months after taking delivery of its first box ship.
The oil services company, which has become a shipowner, signed agreements to buy the ships from Hamburg-based charter shipowner E R Schiffahrt. The ships will be delivered in January and February 2012.
Oslo-based GTB said it agreed to 15-year time charters for both ships with "one of the top five container lines in the world."
The charterer has options to buy the ships after 12 and 15 years from the date of delivery.
GTB expects to generate total revenue of $660 million from the two vessels if options to buy them after 12 years are not exercised.
E R Schiffahrt will be retained as technical manager of the two ships. GTB entered the container market in November with the delivery of a 2003-built 4,414-TEU vessel worth $50.5 million and chartered to Taiwanese ocean carrier Yang Ming until between August and November 2019 at a daily rate of $26,400.
The company is reported to be planning the purchase of 10 to 15 container ships as well as tankers and bulk carriers.GTB says its objective is to finance all or most of its future investments in the Chinese markets, in co-operation with China's HNA, GTB’s biggest shareholder with a 33.3 percent stake.
