Molaris heads new US IPO

Stamatis Molaris is returning to Wall Street with a $270m IPO for a dry-cargo and tanker owner.

Stamatis Molaris.

Alma Maritime, a spin-off from Empire Navigation, will float on the New York Stock Exchange with a mixed fleet of seven vessels.

An IPO for Empire was first touted by TradeWinds last month. Confirmation of the move comes in the same week as first Peter Georgiopoulos and then Evangelos Marinakis spearheaded the first post-crash shipping listings in the US on the same exchange.

Alma says it will offer 11.25 million shares at between $19 and $21 each, which would raise up to $236.25m.

With underwrites' options thrown into the mix, the share count rises to 12,937,500 and takes the total purse to $271.69m.

Empire will chip in a further $62m, potentially boosting Alma’s war chest past the $330m mark.

Alma will use the IPO cash to buy two 2008-built suezmaxes and a five-year-old capesize, both of which will arrive in May.

It will also take on four suezmax newbuildings, scheduled to hit the water between May and September next year. Each of the quartet is attached to a seven-year time charter contract.

Molaris is a familiar name with US investors having been at the head of Quintana Maritime when it went public with a $180m float in the summer of 2005.

He became CEO of Excel Maritime Carriers after it bought Quintana in 2008, but quit less than a year later.

Georgiopoulos' Baltic Trading pocketed $228.2m from its New York IPO earlier this week. It was the first shipowing company to float in the US since Britannia Bulk in June 2008.

Parent Genco contributed a further cash to take Baltic’s balance to $300m.

As TradeWinds reported, the move was widely acclaimed by analysts.

“There still seems to be appetite out there and the market seems open for IPOs. It does seem like we have a window of opportunity,” one said.

Earlier today, Marinakis’ Crude Carriers collected $256.6m from its own float, with cash earmarked to buy three ships.

“More people will come off the fence if these deals are successful. It’s good news for anybody who has a deal in their pocket."

Printable version Newsletter sign up