Seaspan inks eight ship contract with HHI
And is off to flying start with charter agreement with Cosco for all of them

Seaspan Corporation ("Seaspan")  yesterday announced that it has signed contracts to build eight 8500 TEU vessels at Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. ("HHI") in South Korea. The eight newbuilding vessels are scheduled to be delivered between the fourth quarter of 2009 and the fourth quarter of 2010. The total delivered cost is expected to be approximately $132.5 million per vessel, subject to certain pre-delivery expenses remaining at budgeted levels.

Seaspan also announced that it simultaneously entered into twelve-year charter agreements for each of these eight vessels with Cosco Container Lines (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd., an affiliate of Cosco Container Lines Co., Ltd. ("Coscon") of China, at a rate of $42,900 per vessel per day. The charterer will have three consecutive one year options to charter each of the ships for $43,400 per vessel per day after the twelve year firm charter periods.

Coscon is one of the largest container shipping companies in the world.

Each new vessel is expected to contribute between $13.2 million and $13.6 million in incremental EBITDA per annum upon delivery. For this purpose, EBITDA shall mean net earnings before interest, undrawn credit facility fees, taxes, depreciation and amortization of deferred financing fees. This should result in an increase in distributable cash when the vessels are delivered and operating.

"We began working with Coscon last year when we purchased two 3500 TEU vessels for 12 year charter to this major Chinese liner operator and we are very pleased to expand the relationship at this time by adding another eight vessels that will cost approximately $1 billion," said Gerry Wang, Chief Executive Officer of Seaspan. "The acquisition of these new ships will bring our total fleet to 55 vessels and add over $100 million in annual EBITDA once all eight vessels are delivered and operating. We believe this investment demonstrates the power of our business model to finance large scale vessel acquisitions to meet the needs of the top operators in the liner industry."

Seaspan Management Services Limited will supervise the construction of the new vessels and operate the ships for Seaspan at an estimated fixed rate of $6,000 per day through 2011.