Seaspan Corp has unveiled a significant move in a new strategic direction with a $750m reorganisation that will see it take over a mobile power solutions provider from Fairfax Financial Holdings.
The transaction will see the Hong Kong and Vancouver-headquartered containership owner create a new parent company, Atlas Corp, that will buy APR Energy Ltd, which delivers portable power plants.
The deal effectively transforms Seaspan, a major lessor of containerships, into a multi-sector asset management firm.
"The proposed acquisition is a transformative transaction on our journey as professional asset managers," said Seaspan chairman David Sokol, who will become chairman of Atlas. "We are bringing together two leading integrated platforms in two industries in which we have long-term confidence — maritime and energy."
Despite the difference between APR and Seaspan, the containership company sees similarities between the two future Atlas subsidiaries.
"Seaspan and APR are the global leaders in scale and service quality for their asset classes and offer unique integrated platforms to both lease and manage assets on long-term contracts," the company said.
The deal also expands the partnership of Seaspan with Fairfax, which pumped a $500m investment into the containership company in January and which is the majority shareholder in APR after taking it private in 2016.
New company, same team
Like Sokol, Seaspan chief executive Bing Chen and chief financial officer Ryan Courson will hold the same job titles at Atlas.
Seaspan said the all-stock transaction is valued at $750m, including the assumption of debt, which gives an equity value of $425m. Atlas will provide the sellers with new stock valued at $11.10 per share.
"The addition of APR to Atlas will diversify our cash flows and expand our asset portfolio," said Sokol. "We now have significant runway to deploy capital into two attractive businesses, where scale and operational transparency can generate long-term shareholder value through cycles."
The APR deal marks the second major deal for Seaspan in roughly a week, after it paid $380m for six neo-panamax boxships from China Merchants Bank on 14 November.
