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Attorneys in the Business Transactions Group routinely represent and advise a broad array of clients in the maritime industry, including domestic and international shipping and offshore drilling companies, both private and public, private investment funds, investment management firms, financial institutions and other institutional and strategic investors, in connection with a variety of business transactions, including:

  • Mergers and Acquisitions
  • Management and other Leveraged Buyouts, including “Going Private” Transactions
  • Joint Ventures and Strategic Alliances
  • Private Equity Transactions

As the “go to” U.S. law firm in the maritime industry, our attorneys have worked on a number of transformational deals in this sector. Our maritime practice serves as trusted advisors to many of the world’s most notable public and private maritime companies and other industry participants, and is consistently recognized as a market leader by Chambers & Partners, Legal 500, Lloyd’s List and other publications, with capital markets, banking and corporate finance, tax, employment and benefits, intellectual property, litigation and U.S. regulatory specialists dedicated to the maritime industry. Our team has worked on Marine Money M&A Deal of the Year award winning transactions in five of the past six years. This firmwide maritime industry focus enables us to take an interdisciplinary approach to leverage our wealth of experience to develop innovative structures for our clients’ transactions and handle significant legal issues quickly, skillfully and effectively.

Set forth below is a representative list of some of our Maritime transactions.  For more representative deals, please visit the Maritime Transactions Experience page.

Representative Transactions
  • Represented Penfield Marine, a boutique commercial management company operating tankers around the world, in connection with its sale to Maersk Tankers, creating a large-scale crude and product tanker company offering pool partners and cargo customers a wider range of services.
  • Represented Global Ship Lease, Inc. (NYSE:GSL), a leading independent owner of containerships, in connection with its acquisition of 12 containerships from Borealis Finance LLC for an aggregate purchase price of $233.9, to be funded with cash on hand, the proceeds of new bank debt, and the issuance of $35.0 million of its existing 8.00% Senior Unsecured Notes.
  • Represented Belgian-organized oil tanker operator Euronav NV (NYSE:EURN) in connection with its $2 billion merger with New York-based Gener8 Maritime (NYSE:GNRT), creating the leading independent large crude tanker operator in the world with a fleet of 76 operating vessels.
  • Represented Scorpio Tankers Inc. (NYSE:STNG), a provider of marine transportation of petroleum products worldwide, in connection with its merger with Navig8 Product Tankers Inc (NOTC: EIGHT), creating the largest U.S.-listed owner of petroleum product tankers with a fully delivered fleet of 105 vessels.
  • Represented Ocean Rig UDW Inc. (NASDAQ:ORIG) in connection with its $2.7 billion merger with offshore drilling contractor Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG), creating one of the world’s largest fleets of offshore drilling rigs.
  • Represented Poseidon Containers Holdings LLC and K&T Marine LLC in connection with their stock-for-stock merger with Global Ship Lease, Inc. (NYSE: GSL), creating a leading containership owner focused on mid-sized and smaller vessels with a fleet of 38 vessels.
  • Represented Ridgebury Tankers in connection with its joint venture with Riverstone Capital and Tufton Marine to acquire three product tankers.
  • Represented DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ:DRYS) in connection with its $5.25 per share going-private merger with SPII Holdings Inc., a company that may be deemed to be beneficially owned by DryShips’ CEO George Economou.
  • Represented Star Bulk Carriers Corp. (NASDAQ:SBLK), a Marshall Islands-organized global dry bulk shipping company, in connection with its $653 million merger with Oceanbulk Shipping and Oceanbulk Carriers, and its subsequent $634.91 million acquisition of 34 operating dry bulk carriers from Excel Maritime Carriers Ltd., expanding the company’s fleet to 103 vessels on a fully delivered basis.
  • Represented Frontline Ltd. (NYSE/OSE/LSE:FRO) in connection with its merger with Frontline 2012 Ltd. (NOTC:FRNT) to create one of the world’s leading oil tanker companies with a total fleet of approximately 90 vessels.
  • Represented Borr Drilling Limited (NOTC:BORR), a Bermuda-organized international oil and gas drilling contractor headquartered in Norway, in connection with its $232.5 million tender offer acquisition of Paragon Offshore Limited and in connection with its $1.35 billion acquisition of the entire jack-up rig fleet of Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG).
  • Represented Hudson Structured Capital Management in connection with its joint venture with Pangea Logistic Solutions (NASDAQ:PANL) to acquire four newbuilding bulk carriers.
  • Represented Golden Ocean Group Limited (NASDAQ:GOGL), a leading Bermuda-based dry bulk shipping company, in connection with its acquisition of Quintana Shipping Inc.’s entire fleet of 16 vessels.
  • Represented Knightsbridge Shipping Limited in connection with its merger with Bermuda-based Golden Ocean Group Limited (OSE:GOGL).
  • Represented Dorian LPG Ltd. (NOTC:DORIAN), an international maritime LPG shipping company, in connection with the acquisition of Scorpio Tankers Inc.’s (NYSE:STNG) entire fleet of newbuilding Very Large Gas Carriers and cash in exchange for shares representing approximately 30% of the outstanding common stock of Dorian.
  • Represented Sargeant Marine, Inc. in connection with the sale of a 50% stake in its global asphalt trading, storage and marine transportation business to The Vitol Group for an undisclosed sum, forming the new asphalt trading venture VALT.