Milbank LLP advised SEACOR Holdings on the successful formation and launch of Fairwater Holdings LLC. Fairwater, a joint venture between SEACOR and Crowley, is an independent US company that integrates Crowley and SEACOR’s petroleum and chemical transportation vessels, capabilities and personnel to provide US Jones Act shipping solutions.
Fairwater is active in all major Jones Act coastwise tank vessel trades and supports the transportation of petroleum products, chemical and specialty parcels, as well as Alaskan crude oil. The fleet consists of 31 owned vessels, including both "ECO" and conventional medium-range product tankers, 114,000 DWT Aframax tankers and articulated tug-barges (ATBs) with varying enhancements and capabilities. Fairwater also provides ship management services for a diverse fleet of 20 third-party owned vessels.
SEACOR, a portfolio company of American Industrial Partners, is a diversified holding company with interests in domestic and international transportation and logistics assets. American Industrial Partners is an operationally-oriented private equity investor that is distinctively focused on buying industrial businesses with operations in the US, Canada, and other developed markets and creating value through business building strategies. American Industrial Partners manages more than $16 billion on behalf of its limited partners.
The Milbank team advising SEACOR in connection with the consummation of the transaction was led by Global Corporate/M&A partners Scott Golenbock and Benjamin Fidler and associates Rachel Rice, Leslie Hamic, Kaitlin Ryan and Abigail King. The team also included Antitrust partners Fiona Schaeffer and Grant Bermann; Executive Compensation partner Mike Shah and special counsel Kelly Bartley; Global Risk & National Security partner Bijan Ganji and associate Brian Murff; Intellectual Property special counsel Nathaniel T. Browand; Tax partner Max Goodman and associate Michael Rivkin; and Technology partner Nicholas Smith.
