| 06.08.02 London, UK (06 August 2002) - CP Ships Limited today completed its acquisition of all issued and outstanding shares in Italia di Navigazione from d'Amico Società di Navigazione S.p.A. for US$ 40 million in cash. The acquisition was announced on 30th May 2002 As previously announced, the purchase is being paid for with proceeds from CP Ships' offering in July 2002 of 9.6 million common shares and private placement of $200 million of senior unsecured notes. "We are pleased to welcome Italia as CP Ships' seventh brand," commented CP Ships' CEO Ray Miles. "By purchasing Italia CP Ships continues its strategy of making acquisitions to reinforce our regional leadership position, build trade lane economies of scale and create new opportunities for growth. Plans are already in place to strengthen Italia's services and build on the service cooperation that already exists between Italia and other CP Ships brands." Italia's new board of directors is chaired by Frank Halliwell, Chief Operating Officer of CP Ships. Pietro Eugeni continues as managing director. Italia operates its principal container services between the Mediterranean, West Coast North America and Central and South America. It carried about 180,000 teus in 2001. CP Ships and Italia already cooperate in four services and will continue to work together in the Intra-Mediterranean feeder trades. The acquisition includes:
Including the former d'Amico container services already merged with Italia:
Formerly owned by the Italian government, Italia was privatized when acquired by d'Amico in 1998. Italia will remain headquartered in Genoa, Italy, where CP Ships already has a substantial presence. Details of the 11 chartered ships included in the acquisition:
1 Nominal Capacity represents the total number of slots theoretically available both above and below decks and is therefore different from operational capacity which takes account of various factors including average cargo weight, destination of cargo, weather conditions, draft limitations, ship stability, and other factors which generally reduce the ship capacity often significantly. 2 A short-term charter (STC) is a time charter of one year or less and a medium-term charter (MTC) is a time charter of more than one year but less than three years. 3 Geared (G) ships have on-board cranes, while ungeared (U) do not. -ends- |
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