General Maritime and Arlington Tankers merge

General Maritime Corp. and Arlington Tankers Ltd. said their shareholders approved a merger of the two companies at separate shareholder meetings Tuesday.

The combined company will operate under the General Maritime name and is slated to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the GMR ticker symbol today.

Arlington shareholders were to get one share in the new company for each share they owned; General Maritime shareholders were to get 1.34 shares in the new company for each share they held.

Before the combination, General Maritime owned a fleet of 23 tankers -- 12 Aframax and 11 Suezmax tankers -- with a total carrying capacity of about 2.9 million deadweight tons.

Arlington's fleet consisted of eight, double-hulled vessels with an average vessel age of about five years, including two specially designed V-MAX very large crude carriers, two Panamax tankers and four product tankers. 

Source: American Shipper