Taylor Maritime Investments Limited launches US$250mln London IPO

has today launched its US$250mln (£180mln) London IPO.

The company is targeting an issue of 250mln new shares pitched at a price of US$1.00 per share.

It is coming to market as an investment company and has deals in place to acquire a seed portfolio comprising a fleet of used vessels (23 in total).

Moreover, it has a pipeline of further acquisition opportunities which altogether would represent around US$500mln of transactions.

Along with 250mln shares to be issued to equity investors the company noted that it anticipates issuing some US$107mln worth of consideration shares for its asset acquisitions.

Taylor, which highlights resilient and diversified demand for shipping, is aiming to reward investors with a 7% dividend yield with an initial dividend of 1.75 cents per share pencilled in for October.

Once it is fully invested, the company is to target a total net asset value return of 10-12% per year over the medium to long term.

Detailing the market opportunity it highlighted that shipping is ‘the pillar of global trade and remains the most efficient mode of transportation for bulk commodities’, and that supply growth for vessels is presently at historically low levels.

Second-hand vessels are undervalued, according to Taylor, which said that existing vessels are priced at a discount of around 30% to the parity/replacement cost of new build vessels.

Talyor is led by Edward Buttery who established the private company Taylor Maritime in 2014, the founders of dry bulk shipping company Pacific Basin Shipping and gas shipping company BW Epic Kosan.

The company highlighted that its principals have been some of the most active buyers of Handysize and Supramax dry bulk ships, with more than US$1.3bn of asset deals since 1987.

The IPO opens today and closes on May 21, with the result due to be announced on May 24.

It is anticipated that the seed acquisitions will close on or around May 27.