“Don’t Give Up the Ship” – Marathon Acquisition Restructures Deal

This morning Marathon Acquisition Corp. (“MAQ”) announced amendments to its Agreement and Plan for Merger for its previously announced merger with Global Ship Lease Inc. (“GSL”), a subsidiary of CMA CGM.  In order to allow enough time for the shareholders to consider these changes, the special meeting of the shareholders has been deferred to August 12th.  As one might expect, the sponsor and GSL have taken haircuts in order to increase the returns to the prospective shareholders clearly reading the messages from the Street over the past couple of weeks.  Or, as our esteemed President was explaining to me the other day they have picked up the tab for the dilution created by the carried interest.
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CMA-CGM Finds Public Buyers in Marathon

Private equity funds have long had a glamorous reputation as the real movers and shakers in the financial world, buying and selling companies at will and making tremendous returns for their partners and investors. While they are under some pressure now as the easy access to capital they rely upon has been hampered, this was not so in 2006. And it is the 2006 crop of SPACs that is just now coming to maturity, driving the volume of acquisitions by SPACs to $3.9 billion so far this year, more than six times the comparable period in 2007, according to Dealogic.

It was in just this time period, in August 2006 to be precise, that Marathon Acquisition Corp came to the public markets, backed by Michael Gross, a founding partner of private equity powerhouse Apollo. Fast forward to February 2008, however, and Mr. Gross’s SPAC was quickly closing in on its deadline to announce an acquisition target or risk being liquidated. Continue Reading