CP Ships Closes on Purchase of Four Ice Strengthened Ships

CP Ships Limited has closed on its purchase of four ice-strengthened containerships which were previously bareboat chartered. The closing price was $181.5 million. As previously announced, the purchase was paid for with proceeds from CP Ships' offering in July 2002 of 9.6 million common shares and private placement of $200 million of senior unsecured notes. The ships are Canmar Fortune and Canmar Courage which have operated in the CP Ships fleet since 1996 and Canmar Pride and Canmar Honour which joined the fleet in 1998.