Greek shipowners on fundraising binge

With some 35 Greek shipping companies listed on stock exchanges, primarily in New York, the equity market is proving a steady source of funds for the expanding Greek fleet.

Back in spring, while on a visit to Athens, Citigroup's global shipping director, Shreyas Chipalkatty, said: "There is a huge amount of money out there looking for deals and there is a huge potential for shipping to attract that market... a fantastic potential.”

In the past two months alone, Greeks have tapped the equity market for some $600m, often to lay the foundation for a direct raid on the s&p market, or cover one just made. In parallel, some of the proceeds gathered are used to pay off traditional debt.

These raids have reaped as little as $13m or as much as $126m.

Never far from the front line, leading the way in these raids is Evangelos Marinakis’ Capital Group and Angeliki Frangou’s Navios Group.

Marinakis’ Nasdaq-listed Capital Product Partners has just confirmed it has successfully concluded acquisition of three 2013, Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) built 5,020 teu container vessels from its sponsor Capital Maritime & Trading, a $195m deal financed by a recent follow-on equity offering which raised $126m, through the sale of 11.9m units.

Frangou’s Navios Maritime Acquisition, tanker arm of the Navios Group, has unveiled a $100m fundraiser. The NYSE-listed company is issuing nearly 26m new shares at $3.85 a share in two placements, each of about $50m of stock. One is in the form of a registered direct offering (RDO) and the other to the tanker company’s existing major shareholder, NYSE-listed Navios Maritime Holdings, primarily an operator of dry bulk ships. The company said though fleet expansion was likely, "no acquisitions are pending or have been identified”.

Completion of this offering around 16 September will lift to over $320m in funds raised in 2013. In February, $100.5m came in through two RDOs of $22m and $28m and a $50.5m private placement and in May $120m was grossed ($60m RDO, $60m private placement).

Nasdaq-listed Paragon Shipping has also just announced it is selling $25m of shares to add two bulker newbuildings to its fleet. The Michael Bodouroglou-led owner said cash raised would go towards buying two 63,500 dwt ultramax bulkers at a cost of $26.5m each, ordered in China.

End-July, $168m was raised in a private placement of 68.8m shares in Norway by the John Hadjipateras-chaired Dorian LPG. In the upcoming months, Dorian intends to seek a listing on the Oslo Stock Exchange and add to its orderbook of three fuel-efficient VLGCs in South Korea's HHI with deliveries in July and August 2014 and January 2015.

Nasdaq-listed Star Bulk raised $80.1m to underpin its newbuilding projects, two capesize and two ultramax bulkers. Some 15.348m new shares were sold. Initial target for the Petros Pappas-backed Star was $75m, but the offer attracted interest from funds managed by Oaktree Capital, Monarch Alternative Capital, BlueShore Global Equity and Far View Partners which bought shares alongside the owner’s own executives.

NYSE-listed container ship owner Costamare sold 2.3m preferred shares at $25 each, bearing a dividend rate of 7.625, netting $48m – $55.3m to be used for general corporate purposes, “including making vessel acquisitions or investments”.

Polys V Hajioannou-controlled Safe Bulkers raised some $40m from a equity issue which, the company said, had further strengthened its balance sheet and provided “flexibility for further expansion during the low part of the shipping cycle".

Tsakos Energy Navigation (TEN) is looking to offload 4m shares in a bid to raise a pot of $20m "for general corporate purposes, which may include vessel acquisitions, debt repayment and working capital".

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