Kirby Corporation Purchases Tank Barges

Kirby Corporation announced the purchase of the stock of Coastal Towing, Inc., the owner of 37 inland black oil tank barges, for approximately $19.3m. Kirby has been operating the Coastal tank barges since October 2002 under a barge management agreement. Kirby also announced the purchase of 21 tank barges from Cypress Barge Leasing, LLC for $15m in cash. Kirby has been leasing the barges since 1994 when the leases were assigned to Kirby as part of Kirby's purchase of the tank barge fleet of The Dow Chemical Company. Both the Coastal and the Cypress purchases were financed through Kirby's $250 million revolving credit facility. Kirby also confirmed its 2006 fourth quarter earnings per share guidance of $.40 to $.45 and 2006 year guidance of $1.74 to $1.79. The guidance represents a 5% to 18% over reported 2005 fourth quarter net earnings of $.38 per share and a 31% to 35% increase over the 2005 net earnings of $1.33 per share.