Overseas Shipholding Approved to Sign $300 Million Equity Deal

By Steven Church

April 7 (Bloomberg) — Overseas Shipholding Group Inc. won court permission to sign a deal with its lenders that would raise $300 million from a share sale as part of the company’s plan to exit bankruptcy.

Overseas would use the money raised by the sale to keep part of its fleet of tankers, which it uses to transport oil, refined products and natural gas.

The New York-based company is set to return to court next month to seek permission from U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Peter Walsh to send its reorganization plan, which is built on the proposed share sale, to creditors for a vote.

Lenders holding about 60 percent of the debt remaining on Overseas’ $1.5 billion credit facility agreed to guarantee that the company will raise $300 million when it offers new stock, according to today’s filing in Wilmington, Delaware.

Overseas listed assets of $4.15 billion and debt of $2.67 billion when it filed for bankruptcy in November 2012 as tanker rates fell. At the time, the company owned or operated 111 vessels. It now operates 89, according to its website.

Overseas had proposed to shrink its fleet further during bankruptcy. The company said that because of the lender deal, it will abandon the planned sale of a group of ships that were collateral for a bank loan.

The case is In re Overseas Shipholding Group Inc., 12- bk-20000, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).