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Atlas Corp. said Tuesday it has agreed to be acquired by Poseidon Acquisition Corp. in a $10.9 billion take-private deal about three months after the energy-generation- and container-ship-asset owner was initially approached with an unsolicited buyout offer.
It’s one of two megadeals announced on Tuesday, along with Johnson & Johnson’s
JNJ,
$16.6 billion acquisition of Abiomed Inc.
ABMD,
a provider of medical technology for circulation and oxygenation.
The sweetened price of $15.50 a share for Atlas Corp. amounts to a 34% premium over the stock’s closing price on the day before the initial offer was made on Aug. 4.
Atlas Corp.
ATCO,
shares jumped 3% after it accepted the buyout offer from Poseidon Acquisition Corp., an investor group backed by David Sokol, who is the chairman of Atlas Corp.
Canada’s Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. and container-shipping company Ocean Network Express Pte. Ltd. are also investors in Poseidon.
Poseidon already owns more than 50% of Atlas Corp., but it needed a blessing from the company’s special committee as well as its minority shareholders to move ahead with the deal.
Atlas Corp. owns Seaspan, the largest global containership lessor with the world’s most major container-shipping liners, as well as APR Energy, a global leasing business that owns and operates a fleet of gas turbines and other power-generation equipment.
Atlas Corp.’s special committee and its significant minority shareholder Albright Capital had objected to Poseidon’s initial offer of $14.45 a share as inadequate.
Gregory Bowes, managing principal of Albright Capital Management, said in a Sept. 6 statement that the price undervalued Atlas Corp. and that it planned to vote against the deal.
Poseidon then increased its offer to $15.50 a share on Sept. 28.
Albright did not reply to an email from MarketWatch seeking comment on the higher price.
Atlas Corp. will cease trading on the New York Stock Exchange when the deal closes as expected in the first half of 2023.
Seaspan describes itself as the largest global containership lessor, primarily focused on long-term, fixed-rate leases with the world’s largest container-shipping liners. Its operating fleet included 127 vessels as of June 30, with 63 more vessels under construction.
Albright Capital, which was co-founded in 2005 by former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, bought shares of Atlas Corp. in 2020 when Seaspan merged with its portfolio company APR Energy to form Atlas Corp.
Albright Capital was a founding institutional private investor in APR Energy in 2009.
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