Capital Ship Management Corp. takes Delivery of M/V ’Hyundai Paramount’

Athens, Greece, April 5, 2013. Capital Ship Management Corp. successfully took delivery today of the container vessel  M/V ’Hyundai Paramount’ at Hyundai Heavy Industries (“HHI”), Gunsan, South Korea. The M/V ‘Hyundai Paramount’ is a container vessel of 5,023 TEU and deadweight of 50,900 MT. It is one of five super-efficient new sister ships with eco-friendly design ordered, as Capital Maritime & Trading Corp. expands its operations into the container sector. All vessels have secured a 12 year time charter employment (+/- 60 days) to Hyundai Merchant Marine Co. Ltd. ("HMM") at a gross rate of $29,350 per day.

Celebrations for the delivery of the container vessel  M/V ’Hyundai Paramount’ lasted for two days, including a pre delivery cocktail reception and dinner that took place on the 4th of April at Grand Hyatt Hotel in Seoul, hosted by Capital. The evening featured speeches, commemorative gifts exchange and after-hours drinks at the trendy bar JJ’s.  The vessel naming ceremony took place on the morning of the following day, April 5, at HHI shipyard, Gunsan. After the opening announcement and the salute to national flags, a welcoming address, commemorative and congratulatory speeches were made by Mr. Oi-Hyun Kim, President  & COO of HHI, Mr. Gerassimos Ventouris, COO of Capital Ship Management Corp. and Mr. C. K. Yoo, President and CEO of HMM. An appreciation plaque was awarded by Capital to the representatives of the workers: Mr. Jae-Bin Oh, Manager of Safety & Health Department, Mr. Chang-Gu Ham from Panel Assembly Department and Mr. Young-Hun Go, Technical Assistance Manager of the Outfitting Dept. After naming the vessel, the many guests were keen to tour ’Hyundai Paramount’ and to attend tape Cutting, Horn Blowing, and the Greek orthodox Christian Blessing.  Later on, all guests were escorted to a Cocktail Reception, Luncheon & Traditional Gift Exchange hosted by HHI.

Delivery festivities were well attended by more than 50 high ranking officials from Capital, HHI and HMM, including Mr. Gerassimos Ventouris, COO, Capital Ship Management Corp., Mr. Ioannis Lazaridis, CFO, Capital Product Partners L.P., Mr. Vangelis Bairactaris, Director & Secretary, Capital Product Partners L.P., Mr. Jerry Kalogiratos, Finance Director, Capital Maritime & Trading Corp., Mr. Pali Grewal, Newbuilding Director, Capital Ship Management Corp., Mr. Johannes Kock, Chartering Director, Container Carriers Corp., Mr. Jens Storm, COO, Container Carriers Corp., Mr. C. K. Yoo, President and CEO, HMM, his spouse Mrs. Hae Jung Yoon, who was the vessel’s godmother, Mrs. Ji Yi Chung, EVP, HMM, Mr. Oi-Hyun Kim, President & COO, HHI, Mrs. Olga Terentieva, Vice President, ING, and Mr. Kartal Cona, Vice President, DVB.

Two more sister vessels to M/V ’Hyundai Paramount’ have been delivered to present: M/V ’Hyundai Prestige’ was delivered on 19th February 2013 and M/V ’Hyundai Premium’ was delivered on 11th March 2013. The last two sister vessels are expected for delivery: M/V ’Hyundai Privilege’ on 30th April 2013 and M/V ’Hyundai Platinum’ on 31st May 2013.

Speaking in Piraeus at a Capital reception to mark the delivery of M/V ’Hyundai Prestige’ and M/V ’Hyundai Premium’, Evangelos Marinakis, CEO of Capital commented: “These are demanding times for all of us. We are doing our upmost to serve as best as possible the needs of our clients for the years to come. With fuel prices high and with our increasing environmental responsibilities we are investing in high performance, truly eco, environmentally-friendly new tonnage.”

Mr. Marinakis added: “When contracting for this new series of 5000 TEU container ships, we paid special attention to obtaining a design with engines which offer high efficiency throughout the entire load range in order to achieve speed flexibility with the best fuel consumption and a reduced carbon footprint. It’s great to see this new design in the water and safely delivered to our charterers Hyundai Merchant Marine.”

Two of the vessels, the M/V 'Hyundai Premium' and M/V 'Hyundai Paramount' were acquired by Capital Product Partners L.P. (the "Partnership") (NASDAQ: CPLP) for a total consideration of $130 million.

The transaction was completed by the end of March 2013, as the Partnership used the net proceeds from the issuance of 9.1 million Class B Preferred Units together with approximately $54 million from its existing credit facilities and part of its cash balances for the acquisition.

Mr. Ioannis Lazaridis, Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer of the Partnership's General Partner commented: "We are very pleased to have concluded this important transaction for the Partnership, as it offers long term cash flow visibility to our shareholders, further diversifies our revenue stream with the addition of HMM to our charterers, and we believe, will further underpin our existing distribution level and allow for distribution growth ahead. In addition, we acquire two state of the art, eco type, wide beam, fuel efficient newbuilding container vessels built in one of the best shipyards in the world to very high specification. Importantly, we are very pleased by the continuous support of our existing shareholders to the Partnership."

The five sister container vessels are classed with Lloyd’s Register. At a recent delivery ceremony, Apostolos Poulovassilis, Lloyd’s Register’s Regional Marine Manager, Europe, Middle East and Africa, said: “Congratulations to Capital and all involved. We have been very proud to be working with HHI and Capital on this new series of LR classed container ships – our technical experts have been providing support every step of the way. This included our specially established design optimisation/verification service which examined many aspects of this high-specification design and how these features interact together holistically in order to meet the required standards of safety, environmental performance and energy efficiency across the whole operational envelope of the ships.”

The ships are equipped with AMP (Alternative Marine Power System), often known as a ‘cold ironing’ system facility where shore can provide electrical supply while in port with maximum power of 3.2 MW. This is a system where a container vessel can, whilst in port, shut down its generators and 'plug' into the shore power. This reduces emissions from the exhausts whilst in port. It is not yet a widely used system but is particularly suitable for container vessels, which traditionally have a high consumption in port in order to run their generators for the reefer containers. In addition to this, the main engine has advanced automatic surveillance, performance, evaluation and diagnostic systems.

The ships are also fitted with an ‘X’ – twisted full spade rudder. The benefits of using such a rudder is that a twist in the upper and lower part of the rudder blade prevents cavitation and associated erosion problems developing as a consequence of rotational flow aft of the propeller. As well as this, the vessel is designed for one man bridge control and is capable of sailing at slow and super slow speeds.