- More shipowners have come to Wall Street than have left over the past half decade.
- Yet most of the new arrivals have been micro-cap stocks and some of the recent departures have been big names.
- On Monday, liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipping giant GasLog Ltd. (NYSE: GLOG) announced plans to go private.
The delisting of GasLog
The delisting of GasLog follows on the heels of January’s definitive agreement to fold Navios Containers (NYSE: NMCI) into Navios Partners (NMM), December’s “take private” announcement by Seacor (NYSE: CKH), the delisting of Teekay Offshore’s common (but not preferred) units in January 2020 after the takeover by Brookfield Business Partners, and the privatization of DryShips in October 2019.
GasLog’s founder
GasLog’s founder, shipping magnate Peter Livanos, said the new deal would allow “for access to growth capital currently absent in the public equity markets.”
That’s definitely not a vote of confidence in the value of a shipping listing.
GasLog is selling 45% of its outstanding shares to BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) for $248 million. If shareholders approve the deal, BlackRock’s Global Energy & Power Infrastructure division would pay $5.80 per share, a 17% premium to Friday’s close, and the stock would be delisted.
Share price jumps
GasLog Ltd.’s share price jumped 19% on Monday on the BlackRock news.
“This is a surprising development but nonetheless underscores the long-term positive outlook for the LNG sector given this new investment on the part of BlackRock,” said Clarksons Platou Securities analyst Omar Nokta in a research note.
According to Fearnleys Securities, “The backdrop here is, in our view, a financing gap with $315 million in senior unsecured [debt] due next year and limited scope to bridge this with cash flow from the spot vessels. This is probably the best thing GasLog shareholders could have hoped for.”
Public versus private?
Do five delistings or proposed delistings over 15 months point to a trend or are they just a confluence of company-specific decisions?
Jefferies shipping analyst Randy Giveans told American Shipper, “There has always been this tug-of-war between the costs and benefits of being a publicly traded company. There are certainly pros and cons to it, but the vast majority of shipowners who are public want to stay public.
LNG carrier earnings roundup
The BlackRock deal overshadowed the earnings news, but both GasLog Ltd. and GasLog Partners published quarterly results on Monday.
GasLog Ltd. reported net income of $45.9 million for Q4 2020 compared to a net loss of $119.9 million in Q4 2019. Adjusted Q4 2020 earnings per share of 24 cents came in just above the analyst forecast for 23 cents.
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Source: Yahoo Finance
