Seaspan Corp has formally been taken into private hands.
The stock of Atlas Corp — its New York Stock Exchange-listed asset-management parent company — will shortly be suspended from trading and the company delisted.
Shareholders have today requested that Atlas’ common shares cease trading “with immediate effect”, although preferred shares will continue to trade.
That will set the seal on a $10.9bn take-private merger plan launched several months ago by majority shareholders of Atlas.
Stakeholders of Atlas and Poseidon Acquisition are buying the outstanding shares of Hong Kong and Vancouver-headquartered Atlas.
The deal was unveiled in August last year by Poseidon’s shareholders including affiliates of Fairfax Financial Holdings, the Washington family and Atlas chairman David Sokol, which together already controlled 68% of the company.
Ocean Network Express — the Singapore-based container ship operation of Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines, NYK Line and K Line — also participated in the bid.
Poseidon first proposed to buy Atlas for $14.45 per share in August last year, but ended up paying $15.50 per share.
The price represented a 34% premium to Atlas’ share prices as of 4 August 2022 when the proposal was unveiled.
Bing Chen is expected to remain in his position as president and chief executive of Atlas Corp.
New era
The move marks a new era for Seaspan, which is the world’s largest tonnage provider with 132 container ships of 1.2m teu.
The company has a further 52 vessels on order, which will increase its fleet capacity to 1.9m teu on a fully delivered basis.
It remains to be seen how the relationship will evolve with Japanese liner operator ONE in the new ownership structure.
The Singapore-based carrier is one of Seaspan’s main clients, with 23 vessels on charter and another 16 newbuildings in the pipeline.
Next to ONE, major operators of Seaspan tonnage include Cosco (29 ships), Maersk (20 ships), Yang Ming (15 ships), Hapag-Lloyd (14 ships) and MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company (10 ships).
Israeli operator Zim is another major client and has committed to taking 25 newbuildings on charter from Seaspan.
In addition to Seaspan, Atlas owns a company called APR Energy, which provides mobile power to underserved markets through gas-powered turbines.
