Global Ship Lease raises annualized dividend to $2.10 per share

Thomas Lister, CEO, stated: “Uncertainty, volatility, disruption, and cyclicality present both challenges and opportunities in shipping. In order to rise to those challenges and pounce on the opportunities, however, a combination of resilience and optionality is key; and we have focused our efforts over the last several years on building both. Our ships are operationally and commercially flexible and are not captive to any single trade or region; our balance sheet is in great shape, with financial leverage below 1x; our debt has a weighted average cost of 3.99% and a weighted average maturity runway of 5.1 years; and we have available cash dry powder for opportunistic purchases and fleet renewal. Meanwhile, we have continued to reinforce our forward contract cover, which now stands at just under $1.9 billion over a weighted average period of 2.3 years, we have grown our quarterly earnings per share to $2.65, and we are increasing the return of capital to our shareholders by upsizing our quarterly dividend to $0.525 per common share. In short, our strategy and business model continue to deliver on our mission to provide investors with a stable and liquid platform from which to build shareholder value by participating in the cyclicality and upside volatility of our industry, while mitigating exposure to downside risk.”