Capital Product Partners (CPLP) has completed a $500m rights offer that forms part of its multi-billion euro transformation from a boxship company into a pure-play owner of modern LNG ships.
The vast majority of the offer was taken up by CPLP’s sponsor, Evangelos Marinakis-controlled Capital Maritime & Trading Corp, which purchased new common units worth nearly $494m at $14.25 apiece.
As a result, CPLP expects Capital Maritime and affiliates to control a combined 74% of the company, compared to about 28% previously.
CPLP had already announced that Marinakis was fully backstopping the offer, at no fee.
Still, the transaction had been available to all the company’s unit holders. The biggest among them is known to be Donald Smith & Co Inc (DSCI), which had an 8% stake as of April this year, according to CPLP’s latest annual filing.
As previously announced, CPLP will spend the $500m it raised to help fund a $3.1bn acquisition from Capital Maritime of 11 LNG carrier newbuildings due for delivery between 2023 and 2027.
Thus transformed and rebranded as Capital New Energy Carriers LP, the company intends to gradually divest its container ships, which it no longer considers part of its core business.
CPLP currently has a fleet of 15 boxships and seven latest-generation LNG carriers.
The acquisition of the 11 LNG carriers will turn the company into the largest US publicly listed owner of two-stroke LNG carriers.
Chief executive Jerry Kalogiratos has described the deal as a “milestone transaction” for the organisation.
