Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the MPC Container Ships Company Update and Guidance Increase conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Speakers today will be CEO Constantin Baack and CFO Moritz Fuhrmann. Please be advised today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Constantin Baack. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator, good morning, everyone. This is Constantin Baack, CEO of MPC Container Ships. I would like to give you an update in today's company update and guidance increase call. Thanks for joining us today. We have issued a stock market announcement this morning. The release and the accompanying presentation can be found on our website. Please note that the material provided in our discussion today contains certain forward-looking statements and indicative figures. Actual results may differ materially from those stated or implied by forward-looking statements due to risks and uncertainties associated with our business. I'm joined here by our CFO, Moritz Fuhrmann, and we will now run you through the highlights of today's announcement.
Let me start with a quick summary of today's news, as we are excited to announce a number of accretive and strategic measures which align perfectly with our ongoing portfolio optimization strategy and our commitment to focus on sustainably returning capital to investors. There are three pillars. First, this fleet of five modern eco vessels, which enhances the overall composition of our fleet and will increase our earnings and distribution capacity already in 2023 and onwards. Moving forward, we will continue to execute our portfolio optimization strategy that will remain centered around upgrading our existing vessels, acquiring modern eco tonnage, as well as investing in new buildings with premium earnings capabilities and lower emissions, as well as potential vessel sales of some of our existing fleet. Secondly, attractive financing.
In conjunction with the acquisition, we have signed a term sheet with a European bank for a $50 million senior secured facility to support the transaction. We have also secured a competitive lease financing with BoCom in the amount of $75 million. That one is secured by 12 vessels out of our existing fleet. A third pillar is strategic divestment. We have negotiated a commercial agreement for early redelivery of one of our vessels, in line with similar agreements that we have announced previously, as well as an agreement on the sale of another vessel. Both transactions will generate significant cash inflows.
As a result of the aforementioned measures, we have raised the financial guidance for financial year 2023 to operating revenues of $650 -670 million and EBITDA of $450 -475 million. On that note, I would like to hand over to Moritz, who will run you through some more details with regards to our measures.
Thank you, Constantin. Turning to the next page. Starting with the fleet acquisition, as just mentioned, obviously, we are very happy to having been able securing five state-of-the-art modern eco feeder vessels that are very much complementary to the fleet on the water and further increasing the footprint of MPCC in the feeder segment. Total acquisition consideration of $136 million for five ships, which has been funded by a combination of bank financing and cash on hand. When looking at new acquisitions from an MPCC perspective, obviously very important, three pillars. One is the accretiveness when it comes to EPS and DPS. From the very beginning in 2023, already accretive, obviously also going forward. In addition, we do have de-risking through charters attached.
Two charterers in this instance, two very good names, investment grade, and an operator that is cargo-backed. Also very important, looking ahead, considering regulatory burden, those vessels will be in compliance going forward, without any retrofitting CapEx needs to be in compliance. Thirdly, the de-risking that I just mentioned through the charterer attached. In addition to the fleet acquisition, we have also been able to announce two further measures when it comes to fleet optimization. One is a commercial agreement on one of our existing ships, the AS Nadia, which is also in line with previously announced cash compensation that we have received from other ships in the fleet.
The good thing is that the vessel will remain on the balance sheet and will continue on a time charter with MSC up until December 2023, February 2024, at $20,000 per day. Use of proceeds will be determined after having received the cash compensation, which is expected to happen early Q3 2023. In addition, we have been able to agree a sale of the AS Ama, which is a 2010-built baby Panamax, for a total consideration of $22 million. The handover is expected to take place in Q4 2023. Up until November 2023, we will benefit from the current time charter attached to the ship. Why have we sold the ship?
We believe it's an attractive price, at the same time, we've been able to divest from an asset which is not strategic to the company anymore from an ESG perspective, but also from a sub-segment perspective. Again, use of proceeds will only be determined once the vessel handover has been successfully taken place in November 2023, so later this year. On that note, I'm handing back to Constantin to walk us through the history of S&P market, but also fleet optimization, portfolio optimization.
Thank you, Moritz. On slide five, we have illustrated, and those who have participated in previous calls, we have shown this slide before, but we are illustrating the development of our acquisition divestment activities. Obviously, starting all the way in 2017 with ramping up the fleet. You can see, the one line is basically reflecting the Clarksons Secondhand Price Index. We have the newbuild price index, and at the bottom of the chart, you can see in bars, the respective number of vessels that have been acquired or sold at each respective point in time. The bullets represent or the circles represent the number or the volume of the respective transactions.
We are basically, or we have acquired overall, since the foundation of the company, 88 vessels for more than $1 billion, in our, on average, around $10 -12 million per vessel. We have, in the meantime, sold 22 vessels in total, which is roughly $430 million or 20 million per vessel. At the same time, we have been able to earn, retain earnings of more than $640 million. We have constantly built up the portfolio, have not only bought, have also sold, especially at the higher end of the cycle. At the same time, and that's now zooming in what is shown here as a red dotted box, what we call strategic execution.
Always aiming at creating shareholder value across cycles, where we have, basically, since Q3 2021, have taken a number of strategic measures, which includes the acquisition, the latest acquisition of the five eco vessels, plus the acquisition earlier this year of two scrubber-fitted vessels, as well as our four new builds, where we have been able to lock in EBITDA backlog, well exceeding the construction CapEx. We have obviously also been able to dispose certain assets and or agree on commercial agreements with regards to the charter. That is a picture, more in general, showing our approach to the fleet and the S&P market.
If you turn to the next slide, where we have basically zoomed in on the developments from Q3, 2021 until pro forma today, i.e., catering for the transactions that we have announced to date. Starting from top to bottom, basically, you know, we have been able to increase the fleet size from 66 to 70 vessels and not just increase the fleet size, we have also exchanged a number of vessels, as I've explained on the previous slide. We will continue the portfolio optimization going forward, meaning we have replaced or sold slightly older vessels and have instead acquired very attractive, more modern eco vessels or new builds with charters attached. Hence, increasing the overall quality of the portfolio composition.
During the same period, we have distributed more than $600 million, documenting our commitment to return capital to investors, which will remain going forward, a key, if not the key, ingredient in our capital allocation strategy. Lastly, the last three items here on this slide, we have, at the same time, also been able to reduce our debt, even with this transaction, or the transaction that we announced today, included on a pro forma basis, significantly reduced our debt outstanding. We have a very large number of unencumbered vessels post, or pro forma of this transaction, providing high balance sheet flexibility. We are still operating at industry-low levels when it comes to financial leverage of 25%.
Therefore, we believe, you know, a lot of the measures that we have executed are positively contributing to the value proposition of MPCC and to our ability to pay out sustainable dividends, which is very important. Now, looking ahead, MPC Container Ships is, in our view, in a very favorable position, given the combination of strong charter backlog, very healthy balance sheet, you know, optimized fleet, that will continue. Under the current market conditions, we will definitely continue to do that, whilst we will definitely remain committed to our ambition to reliably provide additional distributions to our shareholders. With that, we are basically complete with our presentation, and I would hand back to the operator and allow for questions if there are any. Thank you very much.
Thank you. To ask a question, please press star one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. Alternatively, you may submit your question via the webcast. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one and one. There are no questions on the phone lines at this time. Please continue.
Thank you, operator. There are also no questions through the web. Therefore, I mean, I'm sure our presentation was obviously comprehensive, and we, as I mentioned, we are thrilled about the various measures that we have implemented. If there are any questions going forward, feel free to reach out to our IR mailbox. We are certainly looking forward to continue to develop our company and are thrilled about today's announcement. On that note, back to you, operator, and we can close the call. Many thanks.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.