Wilbur Ross controlled Navigator raises $228 million in IPO

Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross

NOVEMBER 21, 2013 — Shares of Wilbur Ross controlled liquefied gas carrier operator Navigator Holdings Ltd. rose as much as 11 percent in their debut, valuing the company at about $1.15 billion reports Reuters, saying that Navigator raised $228 million.

Navigator Holdings Ltd. priced its IPO of 12,000,000 shares of its common stock at $19.00 per share. Navigator offered 9,030,000 shares of common stock with certain selling shareholders offering 2,970,000 shares of common stock.

Navigator will not receive any of the proceeds from the sale of shares by the selling shareholders.

In its pricing announcement, Navigator said it expected to receive net proceeds of approximately $156.4 million from the offering and intended to use the proceeds to fund the equity portion, or approximately $72.7 million, due under its purchase obligations for certain newbuilding vessels to be delivered in 2015 and the remainder for general corporate purposes, including if Navigator elects to exercise its option to purchase an additional newbuilding vessel, to fund $17.6 million of the approximately $44.0 million required to purchase that option vessel.

Jefferies LLC and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering, and Evercore Group L.L.C., Fearnley Securities AS, Global Hunter Securities, LLC and Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated are acting as co-managers for the offering.