CAI International plans IPO

CAI International plans IPO Container leasing company CAI International Inc. is hoping to raise as much as $106.7 million in an initial public offering of its stock.
   San Francisco-based CAI is going public after buying back a half-interest last fall that had been owned by Interpool Inc. of Princeton, N.J.
   CAI plans to sell 5.8 million shares with an estimated price of $14 to $16. The underwriters have an option to buy an additional 870,000 shares to cover overallotments.
   Assuming a price of $15 per share, the company said it expects to have net proceeds of about $78.6 million, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expense. A $1.00 increase or decrease would change net proceeds by $5.4 million.
   CAI said as of March 30 it had a fleet of 684,000 TEUs, 74.7 percent of which represented its managed fleet and 25.3 percent of which represented its owned fleet. It said as of mid-2006 it controlled the world’s seventh-largest container fleet, with about a 6.3 percent market share.
   The company was founded in 1989 by Hiromitsu Ogawa, its executive chairman, as a traditional container leasing company that leased containers it owned to container shipping lines. In 1998, it shifted its focus from leasing containers it owned to managing containers owned by container investors.
   CAI said this shift “has enabled us to grow our total fleet while reducing our debt and operating lease commitments. This has allowed us to realize a higher return on assets and equity than we believe would have been possible if our fleet had consisted entirely of containers
owned by us.”
   Ogawa’s ownership of the company’s common stock increased from 50 percent to 100 percent when the company bought out share owned by Interpool.
   Interpool last week announced plans to be acquired by private equity funds managed by Fortress Investment Group (see related story).
   CAI intends to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol CAP.