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Seaspan Corporation is clearly engaged in a campaign to dominate the containership leasing business. It seems a week does not go by without a new acquisition being announced. Beginning in December 2020 the company went on a full-scale assault acquiring a total of 41 vessels, comprising 37 newbuildings and four secondhand vessels, increasing its fleet to 168 vessels (~10% market share).

In recognition of the improving conditions around the coronavirus, Marine Money will transition from Virtual events to a Hybrid event format at select events in Q2 and on a broader scale in Q3 and Q4.

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Hafnia Limited announced last week that it had executed a seven-year $374 million Sustainability-Linked Senior Secured Term Loan and Revolving Credit Facility ("SLL") with a syndicate of 10 banks,all of which acted as mandated lead arrangers.

Shipping companies based in Norway have a competitive edge at least when it comes to raising capital. Investors there are knowledgeable and fully understand the opportunity that shipping offers and are more than willing to invest in the sector.

For tanker companies, the years 2017 and 2018 were forgettable. The markets were weak and earnings marginal. As a consequence, tanker owners were singularly focused on achieving sufficient runway to a better market and the key to that was raising liquidity.

With sustainability at the core of what it does, Euronav NV announced on Monday that it had recently signed a new three-year (with two one-year options) unsecured sustainability-linked revolving credit facility of EUR 80 million. Significantly oversubscribed, this new facility contains sustainability and emission reductions as a component of the margin pricing.

Back on March 1st, TORM entered into an agreement to purchase eight 2007-2012 built MR product tanker vessels from TEAM Tankers Deep Sea Ltd. for a total cash consideration of $82.5 million and the issuance of 5.97 million shares. Based upon the closing price of TORM's shares on February 26, the value of the shares was $49.6 million implying total consideration of $132.1 million.

Last week, Hapag-Lloyd AG successfully placed in the market its first sustainability-linked corporate senior notes in the amount of EUR 300 million. Sold at par, the senior notes have a coupon of 2.5% and a maturity of seven years.

Setting the stage back in January was Golar LNG Limited's sale of its gas to power and downstream LNG distribution company, Hygo Energy Transition Ltd., to New Fortress Energy Inc. which also agreed to acquire 100% of the common units and general partner units of Golar LNG Partners LP.

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Last week, Global Ship Lease, Inc. announced the pricing of its secondary offering of 4.5 million shares of its common stock (12.4% of the outstanding shares) by affiliates of Kelso & Company, a U.S. private equity firm, and Maas Capital Investments B.V. at a public offering price of $12.50 per share, a discount of 11.1% from the prior day's closing price of $14.06.

On March 30th, International Seaways, Inc. ("INSW") and Diamond S Shipping Inc. ("Diamond S") agreed to merge in a stock-for-stock transaction, with Diamond S surviving as a wholly-owned subsidiary of INSW. Under the terms of the agreement, Diamond S shareholders will receive 0.55375 shares in INSW in consideration for each share owned.

Last week, in a tripartite agreement, an international shipping company, a developer of advanced hydrogen generation systems and a provider of financial solutions to the maritime industry began the process of joining together to take the industry's first step towards a decarbonized future through the use of an alternative fuel as a power source.

We want to thank the 40 participants who joined our Members Only "Financing Retrofits" workshop today. The session, hosted by Marine Money, KfW IPEX-Bank and Wärtsilä, involved a fantastic discussion among shipowners about the modifications they are making to their vessels and how they can be financed.

As part of its fleet renewal process after being acquired by the Prime Group, First Ship Lease Trust ("FSL Trust") announced in December 2018 that it had entered into shipbuilding contracts with COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry (Yangzhou) Co., Ltd. for the construction of two 114,000 dwt scrubber-fitted Tier III LR2 product tankers for delivery in late 2020 and early 2021.

Back in January 2021, Pareto Securities AS ("Pareto") formed Green Feeder AS to acquire two 1,025 TEU ICE 1A scrubber-fitted feeder container vessels trading in Northern Europe. A Norwegian limited tonnage tax company, Green Feeder AS will be the owner of the vessels and will be funded by equity and debt raised by Pareto.

During these very challenging times, what is a shipping company to do? The impact of the pandemic continues, while the tanker market continues to struggle with no clear sign that it will soon turn the corner. With uncertainty, the clear strategy is to build liquidity.

The SPAC mania gripping Wall Street is making me worried about the health of the ship finance industry. Why? Because since when do shipowners miss out on a raging capital markets' party? In fact, finding and tapping attractive pools of speculative capital has historically been the key instrument in the shipowner toolbox!

Share buybacks have become a fact of life, as they are the most flexible and opportunistic way of returning capital to shareholders. Even Warren Buffet is a believer...

Two weeks ago, Golden Ocean Group Limited ("GOGL") announced that it had agreed to acquire 18 modern scrubber-fitted dry bulk carriers consisting of 10x Newcastlemaxes built 2019-21 and 8x Kamsarmaxes built 2020-21 from Hemen Holding Limited, a company indirectly controlled by John Fredriksen, the company's largest shareholder.