Hong Kong: The entire fleet of Vanship Holdings, a joint venture between Univan's Capt Charles Vanderperre and Fred Cheng of Shinyo International, has been hived off to an American firm for US$778m. The nine VLCCs - five double hulled, four single hulled - have been snapped up by George Sagredos' US-listed Energy Infrastructure Acquisition Corp, according to a statement to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Vanship will receive $643m in cash and 13.5m shares, worth $135m, in Energy Infrastructure Merger Corp. Vanship will be entitled to a total of a further 6m shares, which will be payable in the first and second years after the deal is completed, assuming that vessel profit targets are met.
As such Vanship will have a 39.4% stake in EIMC, which will be the first US-listed company to be based in Asia. Vanderperre becomes non-executive chairman of EIMC and Cheng will take on the chief executive role. The ships will be managed by Univan Shipmanagement and all are currently on charter to blue chips such as SK and Formosa.
EIAC chairman Andreas Theotokis added: 'We believe this transaction provides shareholders with an attractive fleet, combining first rate charter parties and high visibility of medium-term cash flows.' [09/12/07]
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