Penn operates a fleet of 18 tank barges.
Kirby Corp. (www.kirbycorp.com), a Houston-based tank barge operator, has entered into an agreement to acquire Penn Maritime Inc. and Maritime Investments LLC (www.pennmaritime.com), a Stamford, Conn.-based operator of tank barges and tugboats that targets the coastal transportation in the United States of primarily black oil products. According to a Kirby Corp. news release, the total value of the transaction is about $295 million and will consist of cash, Kirby common stock and the retirement of Penn’s debt.
Penn operates a fleet of 18 heated, double-hulled tank barges, with a capacity of 1.9 million barrels. Penn also operates 16 tugboats along the East Coast and the U.S. Gulf Coast. Penn’s tank barge fleet has an average age of about 13 years with a product mix that consists primarily of refinery feedstocks, asphalt and crude oil. Penn’s customers include oil companies and refiners, nearly all of whom are current Kirby customers for inland tank barge services.
“We are pleased to announce our agreement with Penn Maritime,” says Joe Pyne, Kirby’s chairman and CEO. “Penn is a well-respected U.S. Jones Act coastal tank barge operator with a well-maintained fleet, and earns the majority of its revenue from term contracts with blue chip domestic and international oil and refining customers. Penn’s fleet will extend our coastal product capabilities, particularly transporting asphalt, which we expect to benefit from the need to repair and upgrade aging highway infrastructure throughout the United States.
Penn also has vessels operating in the Gulf Coast crude oil trade, “which is benefitting from the production and transport of shale-based crude, particularly out of the Eagle Ford (Texas) shale formation,” says Pyne.