Seaspan Says Buyback Offer Oversubscribed

Seaspan said its offer to buy back up to $169.5 million of its stock has been oversubscribed and that it will prorate its purchases from each shareholder that has tendered shares.

The container ship owner-charterer said it expects to accept for purchase 11.3 million of its Class A common shares, roughly 16 percent of Seaspan’s outstanding shares, at a price of $15 per share.

Seaspan said a preliminary count showed 21,290,8590 shares were properly tendered and not properly withdrawn, including 1,381,415 shares tendered through notice of guaranteed delivery.

Because of the oversubscription, Seaspan said it expects to prorate its purchases and expects the proration factor to be approximately 53 percent.

Seaspan has said it intends to fund share purchases in the tender offer with cash on hand. The company’s stock closed on Wednesday, the final day of the tender offer, at $13.65 a share.

-- Contact Joseph Bonney at jbonney@joc.com. Follow him on Twitter @josephbonney.