Navios Maritime Holdings Inc. (NM)

Navios Maritime Holdings Inc. was a Marshall Islands company with its main operations in Piraeus, Greece, and offices in South America and elsewhere. For most of its public life it was a dry bulk shipping company that owned and chartered vessels carrying iron ore, coal, grain and other raw materials. It also owned port terminals in Uruguay and Paraguay and, through Navios South American Logistics, a large barge and logistics business on the Parana and Paraguay river system, known as the Hidrovia.

The Navios name dates back to 1954, when the business began as a shipping arm of U.S. Steel to move iron ore. It later became independent. In 2005, International Shipping Enterprises, a blank-check company led by Angeliki Frangou, acquired Navios, and the company adopted the Navios Maritime Holdings name. Its common stock traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol NM, and Frangou served as chairwoman and chief executive throughout its time as a listed company.

Navios Holdings sponsored a family of related public companies. It formed Navios Maritime Partners, a shipping partnership listed under NMM, and Navios Maritime Acquisition, a tanker company listed under NNA, and kept stakes in both. The parent also issued preferred shares in the form of American depositary shares. The dry bulk downturn of the 2010s left the company with heavy debt, and in January 2019 it carried out a one-for-ten reverse stock split to keep its share price above exchange minimums.

In 2022 Navios Holdings sold its dry bulk fleet to Navios Maritime Partners, turning itself mainly into a holding company for its South American logistics business and its remaining stake in the partnership. Its share price stayed low, and Frangou, who owned roughly 64 percent of the company, proposed to buy out the other holders. The initial offer of $1.84 per share was later increased to $2.28 in cash, about a 43 percent premium to the price before the revised proposal.

Shareholders approved the merger at a special meeting on December 13, 2023, and the deal closed in mid-December. N Logistics Holdings Corporation, a vehicle controlled by Frangou, acquired all common shares it did not already own, and the stock ceased trading on the NYSE. The company's Series G and Series H preferred depositary shares were delisted soon afterward. Navios Maritime Partners remains publicly traded on the NYSE under the symbol NMM, while Navios Holdings itself is now privately held.