Saltchuk acquiring OSG shares on open market since early 2020. They currently own ~17.5%. Will be interesting to see how OSG responds. $3 does seem too low, but OSG has been burning some cash with 6 of their MR tankers and one of the lightering ATB’s laid up. When I first heard Bouchard ships on sale, thought maybe Saltchuk would bid for some of them, apparently they had more ambitious goals.
Seems like an interesting time for Saltchuk to get involved…
OSG shares up 37% today on heavy volume.
Yeah, there are a group of retail shipping investors that have been following OSG for a few years given the possibility of a takeover. Seacor or KMI initially seemed to be most likely candidates but then Saltchuk came out of left field early 2020 and Seacor merged into American Industrial Partners earlier this year. I am not a professional, or even amateur mariner, so not sure if I should be posting here, but I do follow OSG and the Jones Act pretty closely, which means I also try and know what KMI, Crowley, Bouchard, etc, are up to, which is how I found this thread. Will be an interesting upcoming week in terms of OSG stock price and their reaction to what is seen as a lowball offer by Saltchuk. Hopefully if Saltchuk does end up taking over that they are a good employer for all their mariners.
Some of the Saltchuk companies are pretty good to work for. Some of the nonunion Saltchuk companies are relatively low wage. The quality varies.
Saltchuk (and several other big finance corporate maritime employers) have already bought up too many small companies and are already too big.
1 Like
I think the real question is what will they do with the OSG office in Tampa and all of the employees? TOTE is in Jacksonville, would it not make sense to consolidate both companies into one building?
Makes too much sense, you will have to drag OSG shoreside out of those nice digs by their toenails.
Agree 100% on Saltchuk’s market dominance…
I don’t think OSG shore side would like to give up the nice office tower by the Hockey arena, even though Salt Chuck said it would happily retain all 710 OSG employees.
My guess is those employees better get use to the traffic near the South Side Mall in JAX. Duplicate shoreside positions will be eliminated. Bean counters like to call it, “Synergy”. Time to call Uhaul and book a moving van!
2 Likes
HR, Finance/Accounting and HSE will easily be consolidated. Vessel and Technical Superintendents will probably stay, Executives will be synergized.
The fact the offer was made June 30th and we haven’t heard anything says something. I have been investing in various shipping companies for years and I knew they were interested but thought OSG was too big a bite for Saltchuk to chew. I figured it would KMI or maybe Seacor (until AIP snapped them up) that offered to OSG. I have heard rumors Saltchuk is looking for a junior partner to go in with them to take OSG private. Saltchuk might do well to split the West Coast and East Coast operations and let someone else handle most of the East Coast stuff with the handysize fleet delivering refined product to Florida. That way Saltchuk could focus on the West Coast stuff, but who knows what’s going on behind the scenes right now.
Saltchuk is a Seattle company with offices on Lake Union just north of downtown Seattle, but certainly the companies they have bought and brought under the Saltchuk umbrella continue to have local offices and local management: Seattle (Foss is still across the Lake and down the Lake Washington Ship Canal) Anchorage, Honolulu, Jax, SF Bay, etc.
I suspect that TOTE and Tropical Shipping in Jax may be a significantly bigger operation than TOTE in Seattle/Tacoma, but I really wouldn’t know.
I’m not sure what they have for land based companies these days, but certainly they own trucking companies and fuel distributors.
It looks to me like they have not really consolidated companies for synergies all that much. They are pretty much freestanding companies which do some business with each other and each other’s customers. Maybe there have been less synergies than Saltchuk anticipated.
Saltchuk is big, profitable, and acquisitive. No doubt it will get bigger.
Not that it matters but Saltchuck, Foss, and all the other NW companies consolidated offices. They got rid of the properties on South Lake union and now located in Pioneer square
As is increasingly the case, I’m often a bit out of date. I stand corrected.