Avista Capital Partners announced on Monday their investment in a new, joint venture with SEACOR Tankers, Inc. SEACOR is a subsidiary of SEACOR Holdings, Inc. that runs a fleet of seven Jones Act vessels in the United States, transporting petroleum, crude oil, and specialty chemical products.
According to the terms of this new venture, ACP III Tankers, LLC (which is a wholly-owned entity of Avista) will fund a part of the required equity for the construction and design of three product carriers, each of which will have 330,000-barrel cargo capacity. These vessels were contracted by SEACOR, and will be built at General Dynamic’s National Steel and Shipbuilding Company in California. The vessels are scheduled to be delivered between mid-2016 and early-2017.
SEACOR is a full-service, Jones Act shipping platform that has an existing fleet of seven tankers, which are all on long-term bareboat charter or time charter. Avista Capital Partners, founded in 2005, is a private equity firm that manages approximately $6 billion. Avista invests in growth-oriented energy, communications and media, industrials, healthcare, and consumer businesses. The company partners with top-performing management teams to add value to and invest in well-positioned business ventures.
According to Steve Webster, Co-Managing Partner and Co-CEO of Avista Capital Partners, “We are very excited about our new partnership with SEACOR Tankers. The U.S. is projected to continue to experience significant oil and liquids production growth. This growth is creating incremental demand for Jones Act tonnage, as current pipeline and rail infrastructure are not sufficient to handle the expected ramp up. With our capital investment and SEACOR’s experienced team, with whom we have worked closely in the past, our joint venture will be very well positioned to meet this increasing demand and capitalize on future growth opportunities as a result of the strong and improving fundamentals in the Jones Act industry.”
