Seglem-led KNOTOffshore Partners (KNOT) is looking to raise up to $100m from a listing on the NewYork Stock Exchange.
His move comes almost three years after an attempt list a forerunner of the company in Oslo was shelved.
If all goes according to plan the company, a limited partnership headquartered in Aberdeen, intends to take control of shuttle tankers operated by Knutsen NYK Offshore Tankers, a 50:50 partnership between Seglem’s TS Shipping Invest and NYK Line of Japan.
When the deal is sealed KNOT says it will oversee a fleet comprised of two aframaxes and a pair of suezmaxes that are tied to long-term time charters of five years or more with the likes of BG Group, Statoil and Transpetro.
Initially, the stable will include the 106,300-dwt Fortaleza Knutsen(built 2011), 106,300-dwt Recife Knutsen (built 2011), 157,600-dwt Bodil Knutsen (built 2011) and 162,400-dwt Windsor Knutsen(built 2007).
In addition, KNOT will have the option to acquire the 157,000-dwt Carmen Knutsen (built 2013) and four newbuildings that are due for delivery at various intervals between the third and fourth quarters of 2013 and late 2014, filings show.
Arild Vik, who joined the company’s predecessor in 2010 after leaving Knutsen OAS Shipping where he served as director of business development for nearly a decade, was named chief executive and chief financial officer.
In addition to Seglem the board of directors includes John Costain of the Tankers International pool and two representatives from affiliates of NYK Line, Yutaka Higurashi and Yoshiyuki Konuma, according to KNOT’s prospectus.
BofA Merrill Lynch and Citi were listed as joint bookrunners on the deal but no pricing terms were disclosed in Thursday’s filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The timing also remains unclear.
While the floatwas eventually abandoned by the end of the same year NYKLine had emerged as a major investor in the firm.
If KNOT is successful observers say the IPO could set the stage for more US listings later this year. Markets sources claim more than a dozen issuers have deals in the pipeline but have been biding their time due to the downturn and Universal Maritime’s failed attempt to seal a float in Oslo last summer.
You can read the 800-page prospectus in full by clicking on the link located under the Related Media section to the right of this article.
