When Listing Companies Have Accidents

It has been an unusually active month for incidents involving vessels owned by shipping companies that are public, related to public companies and planning to go public.

First came the Athos I, a panamax tanker that on November 26th, the Friday after Thanksgiving, struck a submerged object punching two holes in the cargo and ballast tank ultimately releasing a still unknown quantity of crude oil as it was being maneuvered to a dock at the Citgo terminal on the Delaware River in Philadelphia.

What do these kinds of incidents mean to investors in the public or soon to be public companies that own the vessels? The answer from capital markets professionals in New York is clear – very little. To shed light on the potential implications of taking a company public that has the contingent liability of an environmental incident not yet quantified, we asked Glen Oxton, a partner at premier New York maritime law firm Healy and Baillie, John Sinders, Managing Director of leading maritime investment bank Jefferies, and Gary Wolfe, partner at Seward & Kissel, the most active law firm doing securities work on behalf of shipowners, for their views on the subject.

This is only an excerpt of When Listing Companies Have Accidents

Content is restricted to subscribers. To continue reading please Log-In or view our subscription options.

Existing Users Login
Username
Password

Related Archive Files

• No Related Post