Since the Baltic dry index peaked around late October, global shipping rates for BHP Billiton's
Quintana Maritime
Things may have looked hopeless when Quintana announced last Tuesday that it hadn't found a buyer for the company. But one company finally came to its senses this past weekend and made an acceptable bid.
Excel Maritime
The analysts on the conference call seemed delighted by the deal, but I'm not sure how other Quintana shareholders will view the proposal. They get about 55% economic ownership of the new Excel, but only about 13% of the voting rights. Also, if they were attracted to Quintana's time charter model, I don't know why increased spot-market exposure through Excel would suddenly sound appealing.
This isn't as off-the-deep-end as the recent DryShips diversion, and it looks great for Excel, but the synergies for Quintana shareholders seem slim. At the very least, they will get their capable chief executive at the helm of the combined company, and there is plenty of flexibility to steer the new Excel closer to Quintana's operating model of conducting sale/leasebacks on older ships, and chartering out a high percentage of the fleet.