Maritime Transportation Company Zim Reports leasing six more ships. These ships have a wide beam with a capacity of 5,500 containers (TEU). The agreement was signed with a group of investors headed by the investment company MPC Capital AG.
Zim will lease the ships for a period of seven years, for an amount of up to $ 600 million. The ships will be built at the shipyards of the Korean company HJ Shipbuilding & Contruction and are expected to reach ZIM between May 2023 and February 2024.
Eli Glickman, CEO of ZIM, said: We are pleased to announce another lease of new ships, which guarantees a modern and efficient transport volume on ships specially adapted to the expanding network of our high-speed lines, as well as to other regional lines.
“We continue to advance our strategy of leasing and restyling vessels in order to strengthen our commercial potential, maintain our operational flexibility and strengthen our position as an innovative maritime transportation services company.”
Zim has announced in the past year a number of lease transactions that are expected to increase its fleet of ships in the coming years. Among other things, it announced last year, shortly after being listed on the New York Stock Exchange, the lease of ten natural gas-powered ships from Seaspan, and about two months ago it reported a lease deal with a shipping company affiliated with Canon, which is also the largest shareholder in Zim (26 %). The deal with the Canon-related company was worth $ 400 million for the lease of three new ships with a capacity of 7,000 containers.
Profit jumped nine times
ZIM is currently trading at $ 8.9 billion after the company’s stock has risen hundreds of percent since its IPO in January 2021. The company recorded a 169% growth in revenue to $ 10.7 billion in 2021, and its net profit jumped nearly nine times and reached $ 4.65 billion.
Zim is enjoying the large rise in sea freight prices, which comes against the background of an increase in demand, and disruptions in the supply chain that began with the outbreak of the corona plague about two years ago. In the fourth quarter of 2021, the average freight rate was $ 3,630 per container, and the annual average was $ 2,786, a 227% increase over the 2020 price.
“2021 was a phenomenal year. I will admit and confess, we did not think or dream that we would reach such profitability,” company CEO Eli Glickman told Globes when the reports were published. Glickman himself owns about 1.3% of Zim’s shares, worth about $ 130 million.
Upon publication of the reports, ZIM announced an extraordinary dividend of $ 2.04 billion, which increased the volume of dividends it has distributed to shareholders since it went public to $ 2.6 billion.