Ocean Network Express (ONE) and its business partners have acquired the world’s largest non-operating owner (NOO) of container vessels, Seaspan Corp, in a $10.9bn buyout deal.
The Japanese shipping line announced the acquisition of Seaspan Corp’s parent company, Atlas Corp, with its partners in a statement on Wednesday.
“ONE, together with the partners forming Poseidon Acquisition Corp. (Poseidon), has jointly announced with Atlas Corp. (Atlas), the closing of the previously announced transaction pursuant to which Poseidon has acquired all of the outstanding common stock of Atlas, not already owned by members of Poseidon,” the line said.
As a result, ONE now owns a 28.7% share of Poseidon, a private entity formed by affiliates of Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited, the Washington Family, and David Sokol, board chair of Atlas, and other affiliates.
Atlas is a global asset management company with a focus on capital deployment targeting long-term, risk-adjusted returns across infrastructure assets in the maritime energy sector and other sectors.
The Loadstar reports that if it was not an NOO, Seaspan Corp would rank eighth in the carrier league table, behind its new joint-owner, ONE’s, 1.5m TEU capacity.
According to think tank Alphaliner, Seaspan has a fleet of 137 vessels, with a capacity of 1.25 million TEU, that it leases on long-term charters to shipping operators.
Seaspan also has 57 ships on order that will provide a further 690 000 TEU. The corporation mostly orders or acquires vessels in conjunction with carriers, supported by signed charter party commitments.
“Seaspan is typically not very active in the day-to-day charter market but rather acts as a strategic tonnage provider that charters containerships to blue-chip carriers under long-term contracts,” Alphaliner said.
It added that ONE has 24 ships, with a capacity of 238 000 TEU, on charter from Seaspan, and at least another 15 ships of 152 000 TEU in the pipeline via the NOO’s newbuild programme.
Seaspan has committed the largest part of its order book to Israeli carrier Zim, which has agreed to sign up for charters for a total of 15 vessels with 7 800 TEU capacity and ten ships with 15 000 TEU capacity, which are all LNG-dual fueled.
Seaspan’s ocean carrier portfolio also includes MSC, Cosco, Yang Ming, CMA CGM, Maersk, and Hapag-Lloyd.
Atlas requested that trading of its common stock on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) be suspended with immediate effect following the announcement on 29 March. However, Atlas' preferred stock will remain outstanding and continue to trade on the NYSE.
