Seaspan Corporation
Seaspan Corporation operates and manages state-of-the-art containerships, facilitating the transport of goods worldwide. The company was formed to acquire all of the containership assets out of the Washington Group’s Seaspan Container Lines Limited, creating one of the largest container shipping companies in the world.
RA Capital Advisors was retained to advise Seaspan on its initial public offering and was heavily involved in all aspects of the transaction, including the determination of deal structure, selecting the bankers and underwriting syndicate, and assisting in drafting the prospectus and related documents. RA Capital created a unique structure (High Dividend C-Corp.) that achieved a higher valuation and expanded deal size.
Seaspan’s IPO was the largest ever in the shipping industry and the third largest transportation IPO on the NYSE. The High Dividend structure, analogous to a Hybrid-MLP, allowed the market to absorb a larger offering ($600 million compared to the typical MLP offering of $100-150 million) and increased company valuation to more than 2x what was previously estimated by underwriters.
The transaction was awarded the 2005 Deal of the Year by Marine Money.
