Personnel changes

The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has signed an agreement to acquire 100% of the shares of SeaCube Container Leasing for around US$467M.

Although hard-won improvements in lease and fleet utilisation rates are slipping away, the quick reaction by tank lessors to the downturn in world trade should stand them in good stead in the longer run.

Following a record trading year in 2007, UK-based Real Asset Management plc (RAM) has increased the volume of containers managed worldwide by its software to almost 1.4M TEU, up from 500,000 TEU at the start of 2007.

Reefer container demand held up strongly during 2007, prompting several high-profile lessors to dip their toes in the market for the first time.

Beacon Intermodal Leasing, the newest entrant to the international container leasing market (see WorldCargo News November 2007, p1), is to deploy the Rental4000 lease management solution from Real Asset Management (RAM) plc “Our main reason for selecting Rental4000 was our past history and relationship with the company,” said Dan DeBlasio, a member of the new Beacon management team, who previously held an executive position at Carlisle Leasing.

With effect from November 1, Carlisle Leasing International and Interpool have been formally merged and rebranded as Seacastle Container Leasing.