NASDAQ IPO OK
The public offering of Capital Product Partners LP, of Greek shipowner Evangelos Marinakis, on New York City’s NASDAQ was successful. CPP is involved in the business of oil-product carrying tankers and forms part of the fleet of the holding company Capital Maritime, which controls 49 dry- and liquid-cargo ships and for which 19 tankers are under construction at Korean and Chinese shipyards. Capital Product has offered investors 11.75 million shares at a target price range of between $19 and $21 each, with Merrill Lynch and UBS as the main bookrunners. Particularly high demand by major firms covered the offering more than 10 times, which is considered a record, rising above that of Teekay Shipping, the biggest shipping company in the world, with eight times’ its oversubscription. This increased demand resulted in shares being sold above the predetermined price range, at $21.50, taking in $252.6 million. Capital Product is the first Greek shipping company to be listed on the US market at a price above its target price range, not to mention the fact that in its first hour of trading the stock gained 24 percent. Last Friday it closed at $26.20. The original fleet of CPP consists of eight high-standard oil tankers with an average age of less than a year and icebreaking capacity (Ice Class 1A), while by mid-2008 it will receive another seven newly constructed tankers of the same type. All Capital Product ships have been chartered for the long term by British Petroleum, Morgan Stanley and the Overseas Shipholding Group. Marinakis’s company estimates that within the next few years, another 19 newly built vessels carrying oil products and chemicals will join its fleet with Capital Maritime.
