Navios Maritime Partners, an international owner and operator of dry cargo and tanker vessels, announced that it completed the acquisition of Navios Maritime Acquisition.

Angeliki Frangou, Chairwoman and Chief Executive Officer, stated, “We are pleased with this transformative transaction through which we created the largest U.S. publicly-listed shipping company with 15 vessel types diversified across three segments, servicing more than 10 end markets. About one-third of our fleet will be in each of the dry bulk, containership and tanker segment. We believe that this combination should result in a stronger, more resilient entity, mitigating sector specific cyclicality, and enabling us to capitalize on opportunities throughout the industry and provide even returns to our stakeholders across cycles.”

Merger Transaction Highlights

In the merger, each outstanding common share of Navios Acquisition (other than shares held by Navios Partners) was exchanged for 0.1275 of a common unit of Navios Partners, with Navios Partners issuing a total of approximately 3.4 million common units to the Navios Acquisition shareholders in the transaction. As a result of the merger, Navios Acquisition’s common shares were no longer listed for trading on NYSE.

Benefits of Combination

The Transaction:

• Creates the #1 largest U.S. publicly-listed shipping company, with over 140 vessels aggregating approximately 15 million deadweight tons operating in three segments through 15 different vessel types and serving more than 10 end markets.
• Scales operations with trades across all sizes with about one-third of its vessels operating in each of the three segments.
• Achieves diversification to mitigate idiosyncratic segment volatility as operational segments are driven by unique fundamentals.
• Optimizes strategy allowing management to take advantage of opportunities within each sector, such as by calibrating charter term based upon segment opportunity.
• Realizes annual cost reductions.
• Maintains significant financial flexibility with a combined modest leverage ratio of approximately 35%, based upon the average of publicly available broker reports as of August 20, 2021, and a large collateral value base for refinancing debt maturities.
• Enhances credit profile by increasing cash retention to support growth and continued deleveraging.
• Grows equity market capitalization and depth in share trading to offer an attractive fundamental investment opportunity to investors seeking exposure to global economy.
• Maintains and ultimately grows returns to unitholders of the combined company.
• Provides Navios Acquisition’s shareholders the opportunity to continue to participate in the combined company and avail themselves of market upside.

Advisors

Latham & Watkins LLP acted as legal advisor and Pareto Securities AS acted as financial advisor to the Special Committee of Navios Acquisition. Thompson Hine LLP acted as legal advisor to Navios Acquisition. Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP acted as legal advisor and Jefferies LLC and S. Goldman Advisors LLC acted as financial advisors to Navios Partners.