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Crowley
breaks the ice on Prudhoe Bay.
Common shares
in Crowley Maritime Corp are now worth $1,402 apiece, according to an
independent appraisal.
The valuation by
an unnamed independent consultant comes in connection with a new
Crowley employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) that was funded in June
with a loan from the company.
The closely held
and thinly-traded tug, tanker, shipmanagement and liner company
reports the figure along with a muscular set of second-quarter
results.
Meanwhile,
Crowley is waiting on a judge in Nome, Alaska to remove a final
hindrance from a long-delayed acquisition.
The purchase
involves fuel distributor Northland and associated entities plus
barges, tugs and other assets.
Alaska’s attorney
general had sued to stop the move as giving Crowley too much control
of the Alaskan fuel distribution market. A settlement of the lawsuit a
year ago had been protested by local customers and governments.
Since then,
Crowley has been at work in the state’s supreme court to stop the Nome
judge from going public with documents that contain trade secrets
“that would give an unfair advantage to customers as well as
competitors”.
A resolution is
now at hand, however, and the company is optimistic that it will be
able to conclude the acquisition during the present financial quarter.
The price is expected to be up to some $77m including compensation for
the net working capital of the entities being acquired.
Meanwhile, the
company notes that it spent $9.5m during the second quarter acquiring
a chartered-in vessel that is thought to be a 33-year-old single-hull
tanker. By doing so, Crowley says it escapes some $32m in time-charter
hire through 2009.
Sources indicate
that the vessel is the 19,000-dwt products-chemical carrier Sea
Venture (built 1972), previously owned by a partnership of individual
investors connected with Atlantic Tankships of Norfolk, Virginia, the
former manager.
Crowley Maritime
Corp is reporting a strongly improved $10.4m of net income on $269.0m
of operating revenue for the second quarter of 2005. Operating income
was $14.2m. On a per-share basis, holders of Crowley common stock
netted $62.60 for the quarter.
The quarter’s net
income was thus about 14 times greater than in the corresponding
period of last year ($761,000), while operating revenue was only
around 6% higher, mainly as a result of rate increases. The rise in
quarterly operating income was from $3.6m to $14.2m despite rising
vessel expenses including bunkers.
Crowley adds that
figures for the strong quarter were “partially offset by a $7.0m
decrease in revenues due a shift in timing of operations in Far East
Russia”.
Virtually all
shares not beneficially owned by president, chief executive officer
and chairman Thomas B Crowley Jr are common stock, and Crowley has a
78.2% voting share in the family company. Quarterly net income
attributable to common shareholders in the closely-held company rose
from $0.4m to $9.7m.
Looking at the
first six months of the year, Crowley’s net income was $12.2m on
operating revenue of $510.9m. Operating income for the first half was
$21.7m. The per-share take was $73.97.
By comparison,
Crowley logged a $4.1m loss in the first half of 2004.
In its filing,
Crowley says it has executed agreements worth $34.9m for the
acquisition of “certain equipment” for delivery in 2005 and 2006.
The company adds
that it contracted last year for the construction of two articulated
tug-barge units (ATBs) at a cost of $85.4m including owner-supplied
equipment. As of 30 June, $41.9m of this had been spent. The ATBs are
to be delivered in 2006.
Oakland,
California-based Crowley Maritime Corp is by some measures the largest
Jones Act or US cabotage shipowner. It operates in four segments,
namely liner, ship assist and escort, oil and chemical distribution
and transportation and energy and marine services. |
