Euroseas Ltd. Announces Acquisition of a Panamax Vessel and Sale of Handysize Vessel

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Wednesday, 18 February 2009

Euroseas Ltd., an owner and operator of drybulk carriers and container vessels and provider of seaborne transportation for dry bulk and containerized cargoes, made today several announcements as follows: Fleet Expansion and Renewal: Euroseas announced today, that it signed a memorandum of agreement to acquire charter free the M/V Glorious Wind, a Panamax drybulk carrier of 72,119 dwt built in 1997 in Japan, for approximately $18.4 million. The vessel is expected to be delivered to the Company within the first week of March 2009.
Furthermore, the Company announced that it sold and delivered to her new owners the M/V Nikolaos P, a 34,780 dwt 1984 built Handysize drybulk carrier, one of the smallest and oldest vessels in the Company's fleet, for $2.4 million.
Dividend Declaration for the Fourth Quarter 2008:
The Company's Board of Directors has declared a dividend of $0.10 per common share for the fourth quarter of 2008. The dividend is payable on March 20, 2009 to all shareholders of record as of March 12, 2009. This is the 14th consecutive quarterly dividend since the company accessed the capital markets in August 2005.
Aristides Pittas, Chairman and CEO of Euroseas, commented: "Taking advantage of the current market conditions, we are pleased to continue our fleet renewal and expansion program by announcing the purchase of a 1997 built Panamax bulker with the simultaneous sale of our oldest bulker built in 1984. The total capital expenditure for these two transactions will be $16 million as compared to about $50 million if we did the same transactions only five months ago.
"In this market we have to be particularly prudent and alert so that we can maximize the benefit for our shareholders for the long term. While we have to deal with a challenging market environment, we believe that there will be unique investment opportunities in the near and medium term. We are confident that our strong balance sheet and our cost effective operations will enable us to renew and expand our fleet at opportune times properly positioning our company to benefit from an eventual market turnaround.
"In this context, our Board declared a quarterly dividend of $0.10 per share which represents a yield of about 8.6% on our current stock price. The declaration of the dividend signifies our ability and intention to continue paying healthy dividends alongside our fleet renewal and expansion program."
Source: Euroseas Ltd.