Global Ship Lease secures $1 billion loan facility at 1.5% margin

Global Ship Lease, a leading containership owner, has secured a $1 billion loan facility to support the construction of 15 newbuildings. The interest rate on the facility is set at SOFR plus 1.5%, with a seven-year term, as announced in a press release. The loan will be drawn in tranches corresponding to the delivery schedule of the new vessels, with scheduled deliveries ranging from late 2028 through 2030.

Each ship is expected to commence time charter employment upon delivery. The 8-person syndicate behind the loan includes Bank of America as Bookrunner, Mandated Lead Arranger, Facility Agent, and Security Agent. Other notable participants are Bank of China (Hong Kong), KfW IPEX, ABN-AMRO as Mandated Lead Arrangers, CTBC, and CaixaBank as Lead Arrangers, with BOCOM (HK) and First Citizens Bank serving as Arrangers.

Tassos Psaropoulos, the company's Chief Financial Officer, highlighted that the facility offers financing terms to Global Ship Lease with a diversified group of lenders and noted that the margin is 550 basis points lower than five years ago. As of June 30, 2026, the company operated a fleet of 71 containerships, with an average age weighted by TEU capacity of 18.4 years.

41 of these ships are wide-beam Post-Panamax vessels. Global Ship Lease reported that, on a TEU-weighted basis, the average remaining term of charters was 3.3 years as of June 30, 2026, with contracted revenue of $3.2 billion. Including options under charterers' control, the contracted revenue reached $4.1 billion, with a weighted average remaining term of 4.4 years.

The company also exercised options to construct two additional mid-size containerships in October 2026.