Unfortunately for many of us, the enormous returns of KEX and AKPS are simply hindsight, but there are some trends developing that will drive investment and open new markets in the coming years. a booming Jones Act shipbuilder in recent years. Norwegian the coming years. Foremost is the opening of the Mexican holding company Aker took over the yard in 2005 and worked portion of the Gulf of Mexico to competitive investment and a contract with Shell Oil for 12 product tankers. The yard was production. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto spear-hit hard during the ? nancial crisis and with the help of state headed a successful constitutional reform effort to open the and local taxpayers, Aker kept the operation alive by securing offshore region of that country, and foreign companies are ? nancing for two spec-built ships. Fast forward three years, lined up to develop alliances and compete for exploration and AKPS has booked contracts with SeaRiver Maritime and and drilling rights. And as always, analysts and investors are Crowley Maritime for up to 14 new vessels, and the publicly- keeping an interested but wary watch on developments in sea-traded stock is up over 2200% in the past 18 months. based alternative energy in North America. Cape Wind, LLC On the topic of excellent public stock performance, it will be supplying the ? rst offshore wind farm in the United is hard to miss the outstanding run at Kirby Corporation States, a 3.6 MW operation off the coast of Nantucket. Even (NYSE:KEX). In previous articles, we have followed the dra- more nascent is an effort to support hydropower facility de-matic growth of Kirby both organically and via acquisition. velopment, as embodied in a proposed bill by US Senator Ron The company made six acquisitions since 2008 with a total Wyden of Oregon. Look for future editions of this article se-value of over $800 million, and it seems that their strategy and ries to track ongoing developments in traditional and alterna-integration efforts have proven successful. Figure 1 displays tive energy ? nance.the outsize performance of KEX stock, especially when com-pared with the lagging offshore service and offshore drilling Harry Ward leads the transportation and logistics practice indices over the past three years.at The McLean Group, a middle-market investment bank based in the Washington, DC area. Mr. Ward has executive management experience in the marine industry and focuses Trends to Watchon mergers and acquisitions for mid-sized companies. He is Unfortunately for many of us, the enormous returns of KEX a US Naval Academy graduate and earned an MBA at San and AKPS are simply hindsight, but there are some trends de-Diego State University.veloping that will drive investment and open new markets in www.maritimeprofessional.com | Maritime Professional | 11MP Q1 2014 1-17.indd 11 MP Q1 2014 1-17.indd 11 2/26/2014 1:17:29 PM2/26/2014 1:17:29 PM