New Capital Raise For Safe Bulkers (SB)

Safe Bulkers, Inc. (NYSE: SB) is raising new capital.  Apparently some things are still happening in Greece.  The international drybulk marine transportation outfit plans to offer 5,000,000 shares of its common stock to the public.

As far as the “use of proceeds,” the company plans to make more vessel acquisitions, and it was also noted that the funds would be used for capital expenditures and for other general corporate purposes (which may include debt repayment).

Morgan Stanley, BofA Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse are listed as the book-running managers of the offering.  Evercore Partners is listed as the co-manager.  Safe Bulkers will also grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 750,000 additional shares of common stock.

As far as how this compares in size, a $7.15 share price raises just over $35 million in gross proceeds and the market cap at the close was almost $507 million.  Unfortunately, shares were down almost 8% at $6.57 on the after-hours news reaction and the 52-week trading range is $5.28 to $9.78.