Navios Maritime Holdings is again tweaking and extending the preferred share tender offer that riled shareholders after failing to get enough takers for the second time.
Owners of two series of preferred shares now have until 1 March to flip their shares for either $7.25 in cash or $8.28 in notes or $7.16 in cash or $8.19 in notes depending on series. This time around, tendering shares no longer counts as a vote to strip the preferred shares of unpaid accrued dividends.
Return unchanged
The return remains unchanged from the 4 February deal the Angeliki Frangou-led dry bulk player offered 4 February. Then, the company argued the offer was a 110% premium on the shares' market price. Still, just over half of the required 66.66% shares were tendered by last Friday's deadline.
The first offer to buyback preferred shares was made in December. In January, shareholder Norman Roberts filed suit in New York federal court on behalf of all preferred shareholders, alleging Frangou and the company's board were trying to force them out so she could cut a dividend to common shareholders.
Roberts said Frangou — who owns nearly a third of all common shares — needed to do so as her bank accounts were frozen by Greek authorities in relation to a money laundering investigation.
Dividends had not been paid in more than three years.
Roberts filed a similar lawsuit in 2016 over a similar offer from Navios.
The 2016 controversy played out much the same way as this one: Roberts sued after the initial offer and Navios revised it twice, the second time removing the measure that strips shares of their accrued dividends. After the second change, Roberts abandoned the lawsuit.
Then, Roberts sought to recover attorneys fees from Navios, which the court denied.
In a statement to TradeWinds after the lawsuit was filed, Navios contended that the result"completely vindicated" the company.
