Seaspan Announces Newbuilding Acquisition and Two-Year Time Charter

Issues Preferred Equity for Total Proceeds of $26 Million

HONG KONG, CHINA, Jun 3, 2010 (Marketwire via COMTEX News Network) -- Seaspan Corporation (NYSE:SSW) announced today that it purchased and accepted delivery of one 4250 TEU newbuilding vessel for approximately $43 million constructed by Zhejiang Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. of China.

The Company also announced that it is finalizing the terms of a time charter for the vessel with United Arab Shipping Company ("UASC"), a liner Company jointly owned by six Arab states. Seaspan expects the time charter to be for a two-year period commencing between July 1, 2010 and July 15, 2010 at a rate in excess of $20,000 per day.

Seaspan funded the purchase of the vessel with existing credit facilities and with equity raised from the sale of $26 million of Series B non-convertible perpetual preferred shares issued to Jaccar Holdings Limited, an investor related to Zhejiang Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. The preferred shares are redeemable by the Company at any time and carry an annual dividend rate of 5% of the liquidation value until June 30, 2012, 8% from July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013, and 10% from July 1, 2013 thereafter.

Gerry Wang, Chief Executive Officer of Seaspan, commented, "We are pleased to grow our modern fleet once again with this new transaction, which is our first vessel acquisition since late 2007. Our contracted fleet has now expanded to sixty-nine vessels. Concurrently, we have separately secured $26 million in new equity on favourable terms, further strengthening our capital structure."

About Seaspan

Seaspan owns containerships and charters them pursuant to primarily long-term fixed-rate charters. Seaspan's contracted fleet of 68 containerships consists of 50 containerships in operation and 18 containerships to be delivered over approximately the next 23 months. Seaspan's operating fleet of 50 vessels has an average age of approximately five years and an average remaining charter period of approximately seven years. All of the 18 vessels to be delivered to Seaspan are already committed to long-term time charters averaging approximately 12 years in duration from delivery. Seaspan's customer base consists of seven of the world's largest liner companies, including China Shipping Container Lines, A.P. Moller-Maersk, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Hapag-Lloyd, COSCO Container Lines, K-Line and CSAV.

Seaspan's common shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "SSW".

Source: Seaspan Corporation