StealthGas Inc. Announces the Acquisition of One Resale Newbuild 47,000 Deadweight M.R. Type Product Carrier for Delivery in April 2009, and Its Deployment On a Three-Year Time Charter Monday April 21, 9:00 am ET Company Also Announces the Delivery of the Gas Premiership With Escalating Four-Year Time Charter, the Completion of the Sale of the Gas Renovatio and a New Five-Year Bareboat Charter for the Chiltern ATHENS, Greece, April 21, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- StealthGas Inc. (NasdaqGS:GASS - News) (the "Company"), a ship owning company serving primarily the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sector of the international shipping industry, announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire from an unaffiliated entity a resale new build Korean built 47,000 deadweight IMO 3 M.R. type Product Carrier. The purchase price of the vessel is $57.5 million and she will be financed through a combination of bank debt and internally generated cash resources. Upon her expected delivery to the Company in April 2009 she will be deployed on a three-year time charter to a Far Eastern based ship operator at a rate of $22,000 per day. The Company also announced that it completed on March 19, 2008 the previously announced purchase of the Gas Premiership Japanese built 7,200 cbm Fully Pressurized LPG carrier; she has been deployed on a near four-year time charter to an international gas trader. The time charter rate will increase annually in January 2009 by 4.0%, in January 2010 by 3.8% and in January 2011 by 3.7% respectively. The Company also announced that it has completed the third of three previously announced sales of Handy Size LPG carriers. The Gas Renovatio was delivered to her new owners on March 19, 2008. The Company also announced that upon completion of her existing bare boat charter in mid-May the Chiltern will immediately commence a new five-year bare boat charter to a European LPG operator at a rate representing a circa 20% increase over the existing bare boat charter rate. Commenting on the latest acquisition and re-chartering of the Chiltern, CEO Harry Vafias said, ``We are still finding it extremely difficult to acquire either modern second hand or resale new build Handy Size LPG carriers with near term delivery dates, so we have made a further prudent and accretive investment in a brand new high specification Product Carrier with immediate deployment on an attractive time charter when she is delivered to us in April of next year. The lack of readily available LPG tonnage to purchase further emphasizes in our view, that the outlook for our core sector over the coming years is very positive, and therefore owners are not prepared to sell at a time when prospects appear to be so attractive. Therefore, we have, as we indicated we would, deployed a further amount of capital in the Product Carrier sector with a secure and accretive time charter in a market which personally I am quite confident about in terms of its outlook and prospects over the medium term and is allied to some extent with our core LPG sector. "Finally, we are very pleased also to announce the re-chartering of the Chiltern on a five-year bare boat charter at a rate equating to a near 20% increase over her existing employment. The structure of this type of charter as I have discussed before shields the company from risks, costs and cost increases over the life of the charter, particularly crew costs and crew availability, an issue which is proving to be quite challenging for the maritime industry as a whole at this moment in time.'' About StealthGas Inc. Headquartered in Athens, Greece, StealthGas Inc. is a ship owning company serving primarily the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sector of the international shipping industry. StealthGas Inc. currently has a fleet of 36 LPG carriers with a total capacity of 160,286 cubic meters (cbm) and two MR Product Tankers. In addition, the company has also entered into agreements to acquire one second-hand LPG carrier with expected delivery in September 2008; four new resale LPG carriers with expected delivery from July 2008 until June 2009; five new building LPG carriers with expected delivery from September 2010 through December 2011 and one new resale MR Product Carrier with expected delivery in April 2009. Once these acquisitions are completed, StealthGas Inc.'s fleet will be composed of 46 LPG carriers with a total capacity of 210,499 cubic meters (cbm) and 3 MR Product Tankers with a total capacity of 141,000 deadweight tons (dwt). StealthGas Inc.'s shares are listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market and trade under the symbol "GASS". StealthGas Inc. Press Release