DryShips, Inc. (DRYS) Grabs Controlling Stake in OceanFreight (OCNF)

In a joint announcement, DryShips, Inc. and OceanFreight Inc. said that DryShips has acquired 3,000,856 shares of OceanFreight Inc., giving DryShips controlling interest in OceanFreight.

DryShips came to this position via a complicated mix of cash and share swaps. The shares were acquired from entities operated by OceanFreight CEO Anthony Kandylidis, pursuant to a July 26 purchase agreement. DryShips paid $11.25 cash for each OceanFreight share, plus 0.52326 shares from its holdings of Ocean Rig UDW Inc., valued at par of $0.01 per share. In total, the deal cost DryShips $33,759,671.08 in cash and 1,570,226 shares of Ocean Rig stock. DryShips’ Ocean Rig holdings accordingly dropped from about 78% to around 77% of the company.

DryShips is expected to vote its OceanFreight shares in favor of the merger of OceanFreight with a subsidiary of DryShips, as part of the July 26 deal. The companies expect the merger to close in Q4 2011.

DryShips operates a large network of drybulk carriers and tankers worldwide. As majority stockholder in Ocean Rig, the company also owns nine offshore ultra deepwater drilling units, which includes two ultra deepwater semisubmersible drilling rigs and seven ultra deepwater drillships, four of which remain to be delivered to Ocean Rig during 2011 and 2013. In addition, Dry Ships maintains a fleet of 36 drybulk carriers, including eight Capesize, twenty-six Panamax and two Supramax carriers, with a combined deadweight tonnage of over 3.4 million tons, along with 12 tankers that consist of six Suezmax and six Aframax, having a combined deadweight tonnage of over 1.6 million tons.

OceanFreight owns drybulk vessels operating worldwide. It maintains a fleet of six such ships, four Capesize and two Panamaxes, and expects presently to acquire five Very Large Ore Carriers (VLOCs) with a combined deadweight tonnage of roughly 1.9 million tons.

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