Marine lubricant and fuel supplier Aegean Marine Petroleum Networklast Thursday launched its initial public offering of 12.5 million shares of common stock priced at $14 per share, raising $175 million. In addition, the company has granted the underwriters an option to purchase up to an additional 1.875 million shares of common stock at the initial public offering price to cover over-allotments.
The companys common stock will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ANW. The stock opened at $15 a share on Friday morning when it first began trading.
The privately-held Greek company supplies and markets refined marine fuel and lubricants to ships in port and at sea.
According to Aegean Marines Nov. 17 SEC filing, the companys sales of lubricants have grown 153 percent from $1.5 million in 2003 to $3.8 million in 2005 thats a small but growing percentage of total 2005 sales of $517 million. Through the first six months of 2006, the company recorded nearly $3.1 million in lubricants sales.
In the SEC filing, the company also stated that it purchases refined marine petroleum products, including lubricants, from a limited number of suppliers. In 2005, nearly 30 percent of its total purchases of marine petroleum products came from Fuel and Marine Marketing Ltd., the marine division of Chevron. Aegean Marine bought about 21 percent of its marine petroleum products from its affiliate, Aegean Oil, and about 15 percent from Petrojam Limited, a Jamaican state-owned company.
Aegean Marine Petroleum Network operates from service centers in Greece, Gibraltar, the United Arab Emirates and Jamaica. Its customers include a diverse group of ocean-going and coastal ship operators, marine fuel traders, brokers and other users.