StealthGas To Fund LPG Fleet Expansion Through Share Offering

Sir Ivor, a Stealth Gas-owned 5,000 cbm LPG carrier. Image: Stealth Gas

StealthGas Inc. (NASDAQ:GASS) announced today their plans to offer 8,000,000 shares of its common stock in order to partially fund the acquisition of five vessels, consisting of three second-hand LPG carriers and two new build LPG carriers.

The two newbuild LPG carriers have an expected delivery of May 2013, and the three other vessels will be delivered in the second half of 2014 according a statement by Stealthgas.

An entity controlled by the family of the Stealthgas’ President and Chief Executive Officer has indicated its intention to purchase approximately 5% of the shares offered in the offering. In connection with the offering, Stealthgas intends to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 1,200,000 additional shares of its common stock.

In their statement, Stealthgas notes that remaining net proceeds of the offering will be used for capital expenditures, including vessel acquisitions, and for other general corporate purposes.

Wells Fargo Securities and Deutsche Bank Securities are acting as joint book-running managers for this offering and Global Hunter Securities, Clarkson Capital Markets and Evercore Partners are acting as co-managers for this offering.