Seacor Capital Corp. has made a bid to take over bankrupt International Shipholding Corp. (ISH) for $10 million plus the amount the company has spent of an $18 million bankruptcy loan.
Seacor, a subsidiary of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Seacor Holdings Inc., also will arrange for $25 million in exit financing.
ISH will keep its Jones Act, rail-ferry and pure car/truck carrier (PCTC) services and agree to sell vessels not being purchased by Seacor.
The company filed for bankruptcy protection July 31 after trying to shed assets and negotiate with lenders. ISH, which operated 21 U.S. and foreign-flag vessels, listed assets of $305.1 million and total debts of $226.8 million.
Before Chapter 11, they marketed assets to 68 prospects and got 10 indications of interest, court papers show. They decided the best course was to sell the specialty business segment — its Southeast Asian transportation and brokerage services unit — and reorganize the other segments through Seacor. J Line Corp., an entity substantially owned by ISH CEO Erik Johnsen, has made a stalking horse bid of $18 million for the specialty assets.
Without Seacor, ISH “would be forced to consider less attractive bids” for its assets, CFO Manuel Estrada said in court papers. They want to quickly emerge from bankruptcy and doubt they’ll get better terms than the Seacor’s.
U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Stuart Bernstein still must approve the deal.
Seacor has been busy. On Oct. 18, Seacor sent a letter to Gulfmark's board asking them to consider a prepackaged reorganization and combination with Seacor Marine Holdings Inc., its offshore marine subsidiary
Founded as Central Gulf Steamship Corp. in 1947, ISH had planned to move its headquarters from Mobile, Ala., to New Orleans. But in April it sold the New Orleans office building “in exchange for relief of $6.2 million” owed on the property, according to filings.
View documents filed with the bankruptcy court for the southern district of New York.
