HONG KONG's Atlas Corporation, owners of non-operating shipowner Seaspan, has posted a 14.1 per cent second quarter year-on-year operating profit increase to US$272.59 million, drawn on revenues of $393.9 million, up 8.3 per cent.
"Our strong second quarter performance was at the high end of our expected range, enabling us to raise financial guidance for 2021," said Atlas CEO Bing Chen.
"With Seaspan's industry record of newbuilds and significant forward fixing of our operating fleet, we're pleased to provide one-time long-term financial guidance to assist investors understanding of how our business model benefits from the current market and the cumulative impact on our financial performance," he said.
"Seaspan has significantly transformed its operational and financial profile over the past four years. Today, we have a highly differentiated model in the market with unmatched business scale, operational excellence, customer flexibility, fleet versatility, financial strength, and creative solutions," said Mr Chen.
"Our resilient and differentiated business model has generated $16.2 billion of high-quality long-term gross contracted cash flows. We have secured 100 per cent of our gross contracted cash flows for 2021. This is a testament to our consistent long-term approach and the ability to drive quality growth by providing value-added creative solutions to our customers through all business and market cycles."
Said chief financial officer Graham Talbot: "In relatively short time, we have simplified our capital structure, created greater financial flexibility, secured a lower cost of capital, funded the majority of our newbuild programme, and improved liquidity."
"With the support of our strategic investor Fairfax, we have restructured their holdings and anticipate further developments to unlock value and broaden our growing base of global investors.
"We are now rated by three top credit agencies and expect further traction on our path to an investment grade company credit rating," Mr Talbot said.