Formed in 1982, Bibby Financial Services (“BFS”) is a financier of small- and medium-sized enterprises (“SME”). The company provides specialist and adaptable trade, asset and working capital finance, FX and insurance services helping businesses to grow in domestic and international markets.

In its first deal since its rebranding from Teekay LNG, Seapeak LLC announced on Monday that it had reached an agreement to acquire Evergas from Jaccar Holdings in an all-cash transaction based upon an enterprise value of approximately $700 million. Seapeak was chosen from a competing group of financial and strategic buyers. Evergas’ fleet of ten vessels, with an average age of five years, are all bareboat chartered-in under Chinese leases and consist of two Very Large Ethane Carriers and eight Multigas LPG/LNG Carriers.

Last week, Grindrod Shipping Holdings Ltd. and Taylor Maritime Investments Limited (“TMI”) announced that they have entered into a transaction under which Good Falkirk (MI) Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of TMI, would make a voluntary conditional cash offer for all of the issued ordinary shares of the Company it does not own.

Discussions between the Special Committee of independent directors (the “Special Committee”) of Atlas Corp. and Poseidon Acquisition Corp. (“Poseidon”), regarding the latter’s proposal to acquire all of the outstanding common shares of Atlas that it does not already own or control, continue.

Back in August, GasLog Partners LP entered into a three-year time charter agreement for the Methane Heather Sally, a 145,000 cbm steam LNG carrier built in 2007, with a Southeast Asian charterer for a period of 34 months ending in July 2025.

Historically, it was not unusual to see private shipowners invest in real estate. Both are similar in that they involve renting space, but real estate provided the more stable cash flow. Many liner companies have followed suit but, in this instance, the real estate involved is ports, a profitable adjunct to their main business activity.

It was already a slow start to the year for shipping issuers in the Norwegian bond market with the Wallenius Wilhelmsen ASA offering of NOK 1.25 billion reopening the market for shipping and offshore bonds back in April. Subsequently, the market was moribund as inflation, the pandemic, rising interest rates, and war took their toll.

At the end of last month, Navigator Holdings Ltd. (“Navigator”), the owner and operator of the world’s largest fleet of Handysize liquefied gas carriers, announced that it has entered into a joint venture agreement with Greater Bay Gas Co. Ltd. (“Greater Bay Gas”) which currently operates a fleet of five modern semi-pressurized and semi-refrigerated ethylene and ethane gas carriers.

Continuing the process of deleveraging its balance sheet, Scorpio Tankers Inc. last week announced that it will exercise the purchase options on eight ships and repay a credit facility.

Life is short and one must seize opportunities as they arise. Last week, United Maritime Corporation announced that it entered into definitive agreements with an unaffiliated third party for the sale of its two Aframax vessels, the 2006-built M/T Bluesea and the M/T Parosea, for an en bloc price of approximately $62.5 million.

We too are guilty. We happily accept the rewards of stock ownership including dividend payments but ignore the voting obligation set out in the annual proxy statements companies ask us to respond to. To say our shareholding is miniscule would be an exaggeration and hence our apathy. How important can our vote be after all? Ask Global Ship Lease (“GSL”).

In a recent Pareto Shipping Daily, Eirik Haavaldsen noted that a “…a divergence between share prices and underlying fundamentals should lead to a wave of buybacks within the public shipping equity scene.” It was a good call. Most recently, BW LPG and Scorpio Tankers have been hyperactive in that regard.