Norway´s Gram Car Carriers, a large tonnage provider within the pure car truck carriers segment, has agreed to acquire a further 21.6% equity ownership for a total consideration of $6.10m, in Gram Car AS, the single purpose company owning the 2010-built pure car truck carrier Mediterranean Sea of 5,000 ceu.
GCC is the commercial manager of Gram Car AS and held an initial 1% of the shares outstanding prior to a series of acquisitions announced earlier this year and with this deal is bringing total ownership to 97.5%.
“We are investing in a high-quality vessel we know very well at an attractive price-point. The transaction has favourable return characteristics and is accretive to our future dividend distributions,” said earlier this year Georg A. Whist, the CEO of GCC.
The transactions provide an implicit valuation of the Mediterranean Sea of $34.2 million.
The transaction is expected to support increased dividend distributions and is financed with available liquidity, in accordance with the company.
Gram Car Carriers is a provider within the pure car truck carriers (PCTCs) segment with 20 vessels, across the distribution, mid-size and panamax segments.
Earlier in July the shipowner has revealed GCC intention to sell two of its pure car and truck carriers (PCTC) distribution vessels, the 2,000 ceu Viking Constanza built in 2010, and the 1,000 ceu Viking Princess built in 1996, for a total cash consideration of $43.5 million, with the aim to modernise its fleet and capitalise on historically high second-hand vessel values.
The shipowner didn’t disclose the name of the buyer of the two vessels but said that it is a European-based vehicle logistics firm.
