Greek owner Capital Product Partners has entered into an umbrella agreement with Capital Maritime and Capital GP L.L.C. for the acquisition of 11 newbuild LNG carriers from Capital Maritime for a total acquisition price of $3,130.0 million.
Eleven latest generation two stroke LNG carriers will enter CPLP’s fleet from 2023 to 2027, which would make the partnership the largest US publicly listed owner of two stroke LNG carriers, Capital Product Partners L.P. (CPLP) said in a statement on Monday.
It also said that there was an agreement to change its name to “Capital New Energy Carriers L.P.” which is expected to become effective by the end of this year.
The 11 vessels in question are Amore Mio I, Axios II, Assos, Apostolos, Aktoras, Archimidis, Agamemnon, Alcaios I, Antaios I, Athlos and Archon, and will be purchased through the acquisition of 100% of the equity interests in the applicable vessel-owning company.
The LNG/C Amore Mio I has been delivered in October 2023 and the owner expect to acquire its vessel-owning company on or about the closing date of the umbrella agreement. The acquisition of this vessel was financed through a $196.3 million sale and leaseback transaction between the vessel-owning company and CMB Financial Leasing.
For the vessel-owning companies of Axios II, Assos, Apostolos Aktoras, Archimidis and Agamemnon, the company expects to pay on the closing date a 10% deposit on their respective purchase prices. “We will acquire each Initial Vessel after the applicable vessel’s construction completion and delivery from the shipbuilder,” said CPLP.
The vessel-owning companies of Alcaios I, Antaios I, Athlos and Archon will be acquired on the closing date, and CPLP will take over their obligations under the respective shipbuilding contracts with Hyundai.
“We expect that the total amount due on or about the Closing Date to Capital Maritime will be $454.2 million, reflecting the acquisition of Amore Mio I – net of the Amore Mio I Debt, which is expected to be carried over – the 10% deposit for the initial vessels and the amount due for acquiring the remaining vessels. On delivery of each initial vessel, we will pay the balance of the purchase price for such vessel to Capital Maritime, which will total $1,569.6 million for all initial vessels.”
For the remaining vessels, the company expects to pay an additional total amount of $909.9 million to Hyundai in pre-delivery and delivery installments.
Jerry Kalogiratos, chief executive of Capital GP L.L.C., said: “Importantly, the acquisition of the 11 LNG carriers is expected to be transformative across all financial and qualitative metrics for the Partnership, as we expect our contracted revenues to increase by 87% to $3.1 billion, our revenue weighted charter duration to 7.2 years as of the Closing Date and the average age of our LNG fleet to decrease to 3.2 years by the time all LNGCs have been delivered in 2027.”
