West Coast shipping giant offers $450M to buy Tampa company

A Seattle freight company with $5 billion in sales is in the market to possibly buy a publicly traded Tampa shipping company.

The Tampa company, Overseas Shipholding Group, which ships crude oil and petroleum products, says its board of directors received an unsolicited non-binding indication of interest from Saltchuk Resources for the acquisition of all of its outstanding shares that Saltchuk does not already own, for $6.25 per share in cash.

At $6.25 per share and with roughly 72.4 million Overseas Shipholding shares outstanding, the company's equity would be valued at around $450 million, according to industry publication Seatrade Maritime. Saltchuk and Overseas Shipholding discussed a possible acquisition in mid-2021, the publication reporter, but no deal was completed.