Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”)-advised General Maritime Corporation (“Genmar”) on its recent merger with Navig8 Crude Tankers (“Navig8”), which will create one of the world’s largest owners of very large crude carriers (VLCCs), according to TradeWinds. The new entity will be known as Gener8 Maritime (“Gener8”), will be based in New York and will run 46 ships, including 28 VLCCs.

Twenty-one of Gener8’s VLCC’s will be newbuildings, and the new company will also run 11 suezmaxes, four aframaxes, two panamax and one handymax tankers. If done on a cash basis, the merger would be worth US$1.4 billion, TradeWinds reported.

WFW advised Genmar on all maritime-related and English law aspects of the deal and the legal due diligence in regards to the merger, including the relevant existing newbuilding contracts, charters, commercial management and pool agreement contracts within the Navig8 group.

The WFW team was led by London Finance partner Jonathan Kellett, along with senior associate Patrick Smith and associates Emily King and Philip Arcoumanis. London partner Christina Howard and associate Hayley Arrow provided corporate advice, while New York Finance partner Leo Chang advised on Liberian and Marshall Islands law aspects of the deal.

Partner Jonathan Kellett said: “With this deal Gener8 immediately becomes one of the largest operators of VLCCs in the world, so it marks a significant milestone not only for Genmar, but for the wider industry as well. We are pleased to have advised on this important merger, working closely with Kremer Levin as Genmar’s US counsel, and to demonstrate our capabilities on both the maritime and corporate due diligence side of the deal.”