Global Ship Lease issues statement on special port charges issued by China

Global Ship Lease (GSL) issued the following statement in response to the implementation measures on the special port charges for U.S. Vessels issued by the Ministry of Transport of China: “Global Ship Lease is a corporation formed under the laws of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, with its principal executive office and executive management located in Greece. GSL is a public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and qualifies as a “foreign private issuer” under the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission. GSL is not owned, operated, or controlled by any U.S. enterprise, organization, or individual. GSL’s board of directors consists of nine members, of which only one director (a non-executive director) is based in the U.S. As a publicly traded company, GSL’s shareholders are widely dispersed and there is limited information available to GSL on the composition of its shareholder base. While certain major shareholders and institutional investment managers are required to disclose information on their holdings, the information reported is not updated in real-time, and therefore, would not provide an accurate representation on the composition of GSL’s shareholders. Further, the nationality of GSL’s individual shareholders who are represented by brokers and who hold their shares in “street name” cannot be accurately verified. However, based on the information publicly available to GSL at this time, there is no single U.S. (or other) shareholder that has disclosed ownership in, or control over, directly or indirectly, 25% or more of GSL’s issued and outstanding shares or voting rights. Further, GSL confirms that none of its vessels fly the United States flag, and none of its vessels were built in the United States. All of GSL’s vessels are managed by a company that is located in Greece, and that is 100% owned and controlled by Greek citizens.”