IPO Watch: Navios Maritime Acquisitionwww.navios.com In college, one of my best friends decided that my middle initial stood for “cynic.” Well, even my cynical self was blown away by the very idea of Navios Marine Acquisition. I can just picture a bunch of investment bankers sitting around a J.P. Morgan Chase conference room, wracking their brains to figure out how to earn fees in a market so terrible that only SPACs and dry-bulk shipping seem to generate any interest. (A SPAC, or special purpose acquisition company, is a blank-check deal in which investors give a management team money in hopes that they will make a good acquisition with it.) Then, the lightening bolt hits. “I’ve got it!” one of the well-clad folks shouts. “A dry-bulk SPAC!” And thus, Navios Maritime Acquisition is born. The good news? The SPAC is sponsored by Navios Maritime Holdings (NYSE:NM), a Greek shipping company. Navios specializes in dry-bulk shipping, and the SPAC will instead look to acquire companies that handle liquid cargo, containers, or shipping logistics. One interesting wrinkle is that Navios Maritime Holdings itself was part of a blank-check company acquisition. It was acquired in 2005 by International Shipping Enterprises, a SPAC organized by Angeliki Frangou, who now serves as the CEO of both Navios Maritime Holdings and Navios Maritime Acquisition. She is also the CEO of Navios Maritime Partners L.P. (NYSE:NMM), which is an affiliate of Navios Maritime Holdings. Global demand for shipping is strong because of the growth of trade to and from China and India, so the various Navios businesses have great prospects. Despite the fact that the board of directors is made up of people with experience in both shipping and finance, there are a few potential conflicts. Namely, Navios Maritime Holdings and Navios Maritime Partners are also looking to make acquisitions. The plan is for Holdings to acquire dry-bulk companies except for ships that are Panamax (maximum size to go through the Panama Canal) or Capesize (too large to go through the Suez Canal) class, Partners to acquire Panamax and Capesize ships, and Acquisitions to consider everything else. It’s possible that these companies, with their overlapping interests and managers, would end up cutting deals that benefited . . . spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer
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