OSG to buy back shares from ADM

OSG to buy back shares from ADM Overseas Shipholding Group said it would purchase Archer Daniels Midland’s 13.3 percent stake in the company for about $334 million. ADM held more than 5 million shares in the company, which OSG said it would purchase at $65.42 per share.
   New York-based OSG said that, combined with shares purchased under a buyback program announced in June 2006, it would have purchased back 16 percent of its shares. Its board has also authorized a new program to spend another $200 million buying back its shares.
   The announcement to buy ADM’s shares follows the company’s report of its first quarter results, in which earnings and revenues were lower than in the same 2006 period.
   Net income for the first quarter was $84.7 million, compared with $128.4 million in the same period.
   The 2007 quarter benefited from the sale of 4.6 million shares of Double Hull Tankers Inc., in which OSG holds a minority interest.
   The company said time charter revenues were $259 million in the quarter, down from $280 million, principally due to a decrease in average daily TCE rates for Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs).
   Morten Arntzen, OSG's chief executive officer, said the company “generated solid earnings and cash flow despite challenging business conditions in the first quarter of 2007, while simultaneously investing in our business to enhance future profitability.”
   Earlier this week the company closed on the purchase of an acquisition of Heidmar Lightering, and late last year it acquired the U.S. flag petroleum barge operator Maritrans.