Assets Held For Sale

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2015

Assets Held For Sale [Abstract]

Assets Held For Sale

NOTE E – ASSETS HELD FOR SALE

Since 2014, we have encountered certain challenges related to complying with our debt covenants and overall liquidity restraints. In an attempt to strengthen our financial position, on October 21, 2015, our Board of Directors approved a plan to restructure the Company that is designed to reduce our debt to more manageable levels and increase our liquidity. Since that date, we have modified the Strategic Plan in response to new developments, including our efforts to sell assets and our ongoing discussions with our lenders, lessors, directors and others.

Pursuant to our execution of the Strategic Plan, we completed the following sales in late 2015:

· The sale of one of our international-flagged PCTCs, which allowed the Company to reduce its debt outstanding by approximately $31.3 million and retain excess cash of approximately $15.4 million for general corporate purposes. In addition, we wrote off related unamortized loan costs of $130,000, which we included in loss on extinguishment of debt.

· The sale of our supramax vessel, which allowed us to reduce our debt outstanding by approximately $11.3 million. In conjunction with this sale, we wrote off approximately $100,000 of unamortized loan costs, which we included in loss on extinguishment of debt.

· The sale of our Jones Act barge that was previously included in assets held for sale at December 31, 2014. We used net proceeds of approximately $160,000 to pay down existing debt outstanding.

Under the Strategic Plan, as amended, in addition to selling the assets above, we planned as of December 31, 2015 to sell the following assets: (i) the assets in our Dry Bulk Carriers segment, (ii) the inactive tug included in our Jones Act segment, (iii) our minority interests in mini-bulkers in our Dry Bulk Carriers segment, (iv) our minority interests in chemical and asphalt tankers in our Specialty Contracts segment, (v) our New Orleans office building, and (vi) a small, non-strategic portion of our operations that owns and operates a certified rail-car repair facility near the port of Mobile, Alabama.

During 2014, the Company adopted ASU 2014-08, which changed the definition of discontinued operations. In accordance with this guidance, a component of a reporting entity that is disposed of or meets the criteria to be classified as held for sale should be reported in discontinued operations if the disposal represents a strategic shift. If a reporting entity determines that a component has met these criteria, then it must also determine whether the disposal has (or will have) a major effect on the reporting entity’s operations and financial results to be considered a discontinued operation.

By virtue of adopting the Strategic Plan, the unsold assets identified above met all of the criteria for classification as held for sale as of December 31, 2015; accordingly, we recorded impairment charges of approximately $94.3 million, which included the write off of our remaining goodwill balance of $0.8 million and $0.4 million of unamortized intangible assets – see Note D – Impairment Loss.

Although the implementation of our Strategic Plan has reduced the number of our vessels and operating segments, we do not believe that the plan has significantly changed our business strategy or our historical practices. As a result, we concluded that the disposal of the assets under the Strategic Plan would not have a major effect on our financial results. Lastly, given the unpredictability of our ongoing negotiations with our lenders, lessors and potential vessel purchasers, and due to our lenders’ ability to require that we sell or not sell various assets, whether identified under the Strategic Plan or not, we cannot be certain at this time which operations will remain.

While we continue to actively market the assets classified as held for sale as of December 31, 2015, we have ceased depreciation of these assets.

Subsequent to December 31, 2015, we completed the sales of several of the vessels held for sale at December 31, 2015, which we have described in Note Y – Subsequent Events.