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MPC Maritime Investments GmbH, a subsidiary of German asset and investment manager MPC Capital AG, has arranged the sale of a portfolio of eight container ships for a price of around USD 398 million.

The buyer of the ”M-Star” fleet comprising eight 8,500 TEU container ships is an Asian finance syndicate which intends to continue to use the ships for charter operations.

Two of the eight fully containerised vessels have already been handed over to their new owners. The handover of the remaining six ships is scheduled to take place during the next weeks.

The ships that make up the “M-Star” fleet entered into service between 2004 and 2007.

To finance their purchase, MPC Capital had raised equity capital of around EUR 175 million (USD 197 million) predominantly among private investors.

The sale that has now been agreed means the investors realise an average annual post-tax return of 6 % on their employed capital. The IRR (internal rate of return) is up to 7.7 %, and the total return of capital as high as 195 %.

“We are very proud that we have successfully completed a transaction of this magnitude in this difficult industry climate,” said Constantin Baack, Management Board member of MPC Capital AG.

“We have achieved this solid return on our investors’ employed capital not least by tightly dovetailing specialist shipping knowledge with financial expertise in our investment team.”