Global Ship Lease, Inc.

London United Kingdom

  (NYSE: GSL)

Company Description

A contender in the business of container ship leasing, Global Ship Lease didn't start small. The company was formed in 2007 to acquire a fleet of a dozen containerships from its parent, French marine giant CMA CGM, and then lease the vessels back to CMA CGM under long-term, fixed-rate time charters -- a cost-saving alternative to direct ownership. In 2008, CMA CGM sold a major stake in Global Ship Lease to Marathon Acquisition, a publicly traded "blank check" company. The combined company took the Global Ship Lease name. The fleet, which is solely chartered to CMA CGM, comprises about 20 containerships, from 2,200 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) to nearly 11,000 TEU, with a total capacity of 66,000-plus TEU.