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“…Ask and you shall receive…”
The overriding theme of capital being available to existing companies continues. Both DHT Holdings Inc. (“DHT”) and Teekay Tankers Ltd successfully concluded overnight follow-on equity offerings last week and both were well received.
DHT initially announced plans to offer 8 million shares in an underwritten public offering, “subject to market conditions.” Market conditions were certainly good with the transaction approximately 3 times oversubscribed. The offer was upsized approximately 93% to 15.5 million shares, which included an exercised underwriter’s option to purchase up to 2.025 million shares to cover overallotments. The shares were offered at a discount range of 8-10% of the closing price on February 3rd of $5.08. The strong demand resulted in the transaction being priced at $4.65/share equal to a discount of 8.4%. Proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes, which may include, without limitation, vessel acquisitions, business acquisitions or other strategic alliances, reduction of outstanding borrowings, capital expenditures and working capital.
Stop Presses
Just as we were ready to publish, DHT Holdings and Teekay Tankers announced follow-on equity offerings. DHT intends to offer 8 million shares and will use the proceeds, approximately $40 million based upon today’s closing price, for general corporate purposes. The joint bookrunning managers are UBS, BofA Merrill Lynch and Citi. Dahlman Rose will act as Co-manager and Carnegie as sales agent in Scandinavia.
Chinese Banks, Greek Owners
In a press release from DVB Bank last week, CEO Wolfgang Driese has expressed great optimism on the future role of China, both in the global economy, and in global transport financing. Commenting on his recent trip to Beijing, he is convinced that Chinese banks will gain greater importance in the global syndication market, given that “a number of Western Hemisphere banks that were active before the crisis may well not return”. While we continue to harbour mixed feelings about the development of Chinese banks as emerging global ship financiers given recent concerns over their USD liquidity positions, they have clearly established themselves in the industry and this is evidenced by several new deals below.
At least two Greek shipping companies are said to have secured Chinese money in the past few weeks. Containership owner Danaos has secured approval for a USD 203.4 million Sinosure backed credit facility from Citi and China Exim Bank. The funds will be ultilised for the financing of three 8,530 teu boxships, currently under construction at Shanghai Jiangnan Changxing Heavy Industry. Continue Reading
Equity without Dilution – Seaspan’s Mantra
Last week, we reported on the launching of Seaspan Corporation’s preferred stock issue, which priced last Friday. The company sold 10 million shares of its 9.50% Series C Cumulative Redeemable Perpetual Preferred Shares, par value $0.01 per share, liquidation preference $25.00 per share. Net proceeds to the issuer were $241,250,000. Details of the transaction are shown below in the Guts of the Deal.
Preferred Shares from Seaspan
On Wednesday, Seaspan Corporation, utilizing its $1billion shelf registration, filed a preliminary prospectus supplement for a public offering of its Series C Cumulative Redeemable Perpetual Preferred Stock (“Preferred Shares”). The number of shares being offered was not disclosed; however, the liquidation preference is $25 per share. Proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes, which may include vessel acquisitions or investments. Pending the application of funds for these purposes, the company may prepay a portion of its outstanding debt under certain of its revolvers. Following the offering, Seaspan intends to file an application to list the shares on the New York Stock Exchange.
And the Winner is….the Syndication Market
Last quarter, we went out on a limb, a pretty sturdy one we must confess, and called a turn in the downward trend in the syndication market, based upon a 9.8% increase in volume. Thankfully, we were correct, but the result was unexpected. According to Dealogic, for the twelve months ending in 2010, total syndicated shipping volume was $50.06 billion, an increase of 53.2% over 2009. The ancillary data provided by Dealogic strongly supports this revival, as well as an improving credit environment. As shown below, new money raised nearly doubled from the prior year but what is more significant is that it represented ~76% of new volume whereas in the prior year it was only 59%. The dollar amount of club deals was virtually unchanged, which had the effect of reducing the percentage of club deals as a portion of total volume from 42% in 2009 to approximately 30% in 2010. These trends can be seen in the enclosed graphs.
And the Winner is….the Syndication Market
Last quarter, we went out on a limb, a pretty sturdy one we must confess, and called a turn in the downward trend in the syndication market, based upon a 9.8% increase in volume. Thankfully, we were correct, but the result was unexpected. According to Dealogic, for the twelve months ending in 2010, total syndicated shipping volume was $50.06 billion, an increase of 53.2% over 2009. The ancillary data provided by Dealogic strongly supports this revival, as well as an improving credit environment. As shown below, new money raised nearly doubled from the prior year but what is more significant is that it represented ~76% of new volume whereas in the prior year it was only 59%. The dollar amount of club deals was virtually unchanged, which had the effect of reducing the percentage of club deals as a portion of total volume from 42% in 2009 to approximately 30% in 2010. These trends can be seen in the enclosed graphs.
TOO Follows-on Again
Once again utilizing its $750 million shelf registration, Teekay Offshore, on the heels of its August follow-on offering of 5.25 million shares, last week offered to the public a further 5.6 million common units. The units were priced at $28.74, a 4.4% discount to Thursday’s closing price of $29.11. A green shoe of 840 thousand shares has been offered to the underwriters. Proceeds will be used for general partnership purposes, including the acquisition of dropdowns from parent, Teekay. In the interim the partnership expects to use the proceeds to pay down a portion of its outstanding debt under various revolving credit facilities. More details are provided in out Guts of the Deal below.
APM Goes Back to the Bond Market
Having had its first taste last year, A.P. Moller-Maersk (“APM”) returned to the public bond market a couple of weeks ago, issuing EUR 500 million of 7-year bonds with a coupon of 4.375%. The net proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes. Unsurprisingly, investor interest was strong with the bonds being more than three times oversubscribed. As a point of comparison, last year’s issue of EUR 750 million 5-year bonds carried a coupon of 4.875%. Placed by Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas, Danske Bank, HSBC and RBS, the bonds will be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.
Yes, There Was Equity Too
China’s inflation and Ireland’s banking crisis triggered this week’s market volatility. Nevertheless, Scorpio Tankers Inc. and Navios Maritime Acquisition Corporation (“NMA”) moved ahead with equity follow-on offerings. Scorpio’s registration was for a one-off transaction, whereas Navios’ was a supplement to its recently filed broad shelf registration.
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