Moody’s Investors Service upgraded Global Ship Lease’s corporate family rating from B2 to B1 with a stable outlook. In the announcement of the upgrade, Moody’s cited Global Ship Lease’s increased scale and improving credit metrics, refinancing activities resulting in an extended maturity profile, high revenue visibility from long-term charters, the strong container shipping market environment and an increase in the company’s free float.

“This latest upgrade from Moody’s is further evidence of our progress in transforming our balance sheet, significantly expanding our charter durations and contracted revenue and capturing substantial and accretive growth opportunities in this extraordinarily strong container shipping market,” George Youroukos, executive chairman of Global Ship Lease, said. “With no material debt maturities until 2024 and the proven ability to source and execute on immediately accretive vessel and fleet acquisitions with negligible downside risk, combined with strong market fundamentals that we expect to persist into 2022, we believe we are well positioned to continue driving earnings growth and providing our shareholders with a sustainable, well-supported dividend.”