Global Ship Lease Selling USD 40 Mn Worth of Shares

Global Ship Lease is looking to raise USD 40 million as it launched a fully underwritten public offering of its Class A common shares.

The company said that the offering was priced at USD 0.01 per share, adding that it intends to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional USD 6 million of shares.

As part of the offering, the company’s executive management has expressed an interest to purchase USD 1.225 million in aggregate of shares at the public offering price.

Global Ship Lease would use the net proceeds of the offering for general corporate purposes, including the acquisition of containerships or prepayment of debt.

B. Riley FBR is acting as the sole book-running manager in the offering, and the company expects that a portion of the equity offering will be sold to an affiliate of B. Riley Financial. Following the consummation of the offering, B. Riley and its affiliates intend to retain the shares with an aggregate purchase amount of no less than USD 15 million.

Global Ship Lease has agreed to grant B. Riley the right to appoint one member to its Board of Directors, subject to certain conditions, including retaining a certain percentage of voting rights of the company.