HOLT FAMILY TO REDUCE SHAREHOLDING IN HOLT GROUP INC.

HOLT FAMILY TO REDUCE SHAREHOLDING IN HOLT GROUP INC.    The Holt family, which founded the stevedoring, container shipping and warehousing group Holt Group Inc., said it will cede a “significant portion” of its stock in the group to holders of unsecured notes.
   Leo Holt, spokesman for the Holt Group and son of Tom Holt Sr., said the group will reduce its shareholding in the business from 100 percent to a majority stake, as part of a debt restructuring exercise involving holders of unsecured notes.
   “We put on the table a very serious offer” that includes converting the notes into equity, Holt told American Shipper.
   Holt said creditors with debts other than the unsecured notes will be “unimpaired” by the Holt Group’s filing last Thursday of a petition for protection from creditors under Chapter 11.
   Holt said that, under the group’s new Chapter 11 status, “we see it very much as business as usual.” Navieras, the Puerto Rico shipping line owned by the Holt Group, generated a positive cash-flow last year, he said.
   Holt Group will report its fourth quarter and annual results at the end of April.