Textainer Group Holdings Ltd has reported a profit of $62.1 million, or $1.22 per common share, for the first quarter.

That compares to net income of $44.3 million, or 87 cents per share, in the fourth quarter of 2020.

The Bermudian-headquartered company is one of the world’s largest lessors of intermodal freight containers with a fleet of 3.96 million TEU (20-foot equivalent units) at March 31.

Textainer reported record adjusted net income of $59.2 million, or $1.16 per share, as compared to $41.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Olivier Ghesquiere, president and chief executive of Textainer Group, said: "We are very pleased with our record first quarter results and revenue growth which confirms our strong turnaround. When adjusted for the fewer number of billing days, our lease rental income was 7 per cent higher than in the prior quarter and 16 per cent higher when compared to the first quarter of last year, a solid improvement achieved with unprecedented growth in profitable long-term leases of new containers.

“Our utilisation rate averaged 99.6 per cent and return on equity, calculated using the annualised adjusted net income for the quarter, increased to 18 per cent.”

He added: "We continue to benefit from favourable market conditions underpinned by high trade volumes, resulting in high container demand and prices, and attractive lease yields.

"From July 2020 through July 2021 we will have invested a total of $2.2 billion in new containers that will provide strong cashflow and attractive revenue for many years to come and help facilitate continued profitability improvement. This is a significant investment volume, representing 45 per cent of our container asset value as of the beginning of this period.

“At the same time, we continue to support our historically high utilisation rate by successfully renewing expiring leases under long-term arrangements that guarantee most containers will remain on lease until reaching their sales age, further securing our stable future cashflow."

Adjusted EBITDA was $153.1 million, compared to $136.8 million in the prior quarter.

Lease rental income increased $7.8 million from the fourth quarter, due to an increase in fleet size, utilisation and average rental rate.

There was a net increase of $4.5 million from the fourth quarter of 2020, from the sale of owned fleet containers.

Direct container expense-owned fleet decreased $3.5 million from the fourth quarter of 2020, which includes lower storage costs and maintenance and handling expense resulting from higher utilisation.

Textainer said it invested $580 million in containers delivered during the first quarter, virtually all of which are currently on lease.

As announced on March 30, Textainer issued $651 million of fixed-rate asset backed notes that closed on April 20. Proceeds were used to pay off the 2019-1 notes and to pay down variable-rate bank facilities, which will further lower the company’s effective interest rate and create additional borrowing capacity for future container investment, it said.

The company repurchased 546,220 shares of common stock at an average price of $19.68 per share during the first quarter under the share repurchase programme.

On May 1, Textainer's board of directors authorised an increase to the share repurchase programme for an additional $50 million of the company's outstanding shares.

As announced on April 14, Textainer completed an underwritten public offering of six million depositary shares, each representing a 1/1,000th interest in a share of its 7 per cent Series A cumulative redeemable perpetual preference shares, for an aggregate public offering price of $150 million.