TOP Tankers Announces Agreements to Acquire Three Drybulk Panamax Vessels
August 13 2007 - 8:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
ATHENS, Greece, Aug. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- TOP Tankers Inc
(NASDAQ:TOPT) (the "Company") announced today that it has entered
into agreements to acquire three drybulk panamax vessels from
unrelated third parties as follows: -- One 2001 built panamax
vessel of 75,928 dwt, built in Japan. -- One 2000 built panamax
vessel of 75,933 dwt, built in Japan. -- One 2000 built panamax
vessel of 75,681 dwt, built in Japan. The vessels are scheduled to
be delivered to the Company between September 2007 and March 2008
and to enter into spot market trading. Evangelos Pistiolis, the
Company's Chief Executive Officer, stated: "Consistent with our
commitment to expand in the drybulk sector, we are increasing our
drybulk fleet to six vessels. These three high-quality panamax
drybulk vessels are expected to be accretive to our 2008 earnings
and to generate significant cash-flow." The aggregate purchase
price of the vessels is approximately $222 million. The Company
intends to finance the acquisition through new loan facilities,
working capital, and the proceeds from future capital raisings.
About TOP Tankers Inc TOP Tankers Inc provides international
transportation services of seaborne crude oil, petroleum products
and bulk commodities. After taking into consideration all expected
drybulk vessel acquisitions and the delivery of the M/T Restless
and M/T Victorious to their new owners, the Company will operate a
fleet of 20 tankers, consisting of 12 double-hull Suezmax tankers
and 8 double-hull Handymax tankers, with a total carrying capacity
of approximately 2.2 million dwt, of which 87% are sister ships,
and six drybulk vessels of approximately 0.4 million dwt. Thirteen
of the Company's 20 tankers will be on time charter contracts with
an average term of over three years with all but four of the time
charters including profit sharing agreements. Three of our six
drybulk vessels will have, upon their delivery, time charters
contracts for an average period of 18 months. Cautionary Statement
Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Matters discussed in this
press release may constitute forward-looking statements. The
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides safe
harbor protections for forward-looking statements in order to
encourage companies to provide prospective information about their
business. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning
plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance,
and underlying assumptions and other statements, which are other
than statements of historical facts. The Company desires to take
advantage of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and is including this cautionary
statement in connection with this safe harbor legislation. The
words "believe," "anticipate," "intends," "estimate," "forecast,"
"project," "plan," "potential," "will," "may," "should," "expect"
"pending" and similar expressions identify forward-looking
statements. The forward-looking statements in this press release
are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in
turn, upon further assumptions, including without limitation, our
management's examination of historical operating trends, data
contained in our records and other data available from third
parties. Although we believe that these assumptions were reasonable
when made, because these assumptions are inherently subject to
significant uncertainties and contingencies which are difficult or
impossible to predict and are beyond our control, we cannot assure
you that we will achieve or accomplish these expectations, beliefs
or projections. In addition to these important factors, other
important factors that, in our view, could cause actual results to
differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking
statements include the strength of world economies and currencies,
general market conditions, including fluctuations in charter rates
and vessel values, failure of a seller to deliver one or more
vessels or of a buyer to accept delivery of one or more vessels,
inability to procure acquisition financing, default by one or more
charterers of our ships, changes in the demand for crude oil and
petroleum products, changes in demand for drybulk shipping
capacity, changes in our operating expenses, including bunker
prices, drydocking and insurance costs, the market for our vessels,
availability of financing and refinancing, changes in governmental
rules and regulations or actions taken by regulatory authorities,
potential liability from pending or future litigation, general
domestic and international political conditions, potential
disruption of shipping routes due to accidents or political events,
vessels breakdowns and instances of off-hires and other factors.
Please see our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission
for a more complete discussion of these and other risks and
uncertainties. Contact: Michael Mason (investors) Stamatis
Tsantanis, CFO Allen & Caron Inc TOP Tankers Inc 212 691 8087
011 30 210 812 8199 DATASOURCE: TOP Tankers Inc CONTACT: investors,
Michael Mason of Allen & Caron Inc, +1-212-691-8087, ; or
Stamatis Tsantanis, CFO of TOP Tankers Inc, +011 30 210 812 8199,
Web site: http://www.toptankers.com/
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