Capital Product Partners L.P. Completes Acquisition of Product Tanker M/T Attikos

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

28 Sep 2007

Capital Product Partners L.P. announced yesterday that it has completed the acquisition of the 12,000 dwt double-hull product tanker M/T Attikos, built in 2005, for an aggregate purchase price of $23 million from Capital Maritime & Trading Corp., the owner of its general partner. M/T Attikos is chartered to Trafigura Beheer B.V., a large commodities trader based in The Netherlands, with a remaining charter term of approximately 24 to 26 months at a gross rate of $13,850 per day (net rate $13,503). The vessel's operating expenses are fixed for the next 5 years at a daily rate of $5,500, which includes the special survey/dry docking of the vessel due in 2010. Capital Product Partners expects the annual contribution associated with the acquisition of M/T Attikos to the distributable cash flow to be approximately 4 cents per unit. The acquisition was funded by borrowing $20.5 million under the Partnership's existing revolving credit facility and the remaining $2.5 million were contributed from available cash. The debt has been fixed at an interest rate of 5.675% until June 2012. The transaction has been approved by the board of directors of the Partnership following approval by the conflicts committee of independent directors. ''We are pleased that the Partnership has completed its first accretive acquisition 6 months after its initial public offering,'' said Ioannis Lazaridis, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Capital Product Partners' general partner. ''As previously stated, we are excited about the acquisition of M/T Attikos as it establishes the Partnership's presence in the 'small product tanker' segment, which we believe to be well supported by favorable industry fundamentals. The Partnership is well positioned to grow further in this segment, as Capital Maritime & Trading Corp. currently owns an additional 18 small product tankers, one of which is already in the water and 17 are under construction and expected to be delivered from 2008 to 2010.'' Capital Maritime recently contracted six IMO II 25,000 dwt chemical/product tankers at Samho Shipyard Co. Ltd in Korea for delivery in 2010.