Re: TK tankers
TK has voting control over TNK. There are no IDRs... just two classes of stock. TK owns the same common stock in TNK that everyone else does, plus owns a separate class of stock that gives it voting control. Cash flow from TNK to TK is primarily in the form of normal dividends from the common stock only, but TK has been known to goose inter-company deals in its favor a little. That said, recent actions to align the various businesses have largely been completed.
All of shipping is a high cost-of-capital business. Companies will either be leveraged or they will be continuously diluting shareholders, or both. TNKs leverage is manageable, particularly after they finish buying Tanker Investments Ltd. Dilution has been tolerable.
I own a lot of TNK myself, but it's a dangerous space to be in. The stock market has been very unforgiving to the sector. Companies do not have a lot of flexibility and tend to be beholden to spot and charter rates. Companies are fragmented and often work against the greater interests of the space, resulting in overbuilding (the current situation the space is in). It is unclear what the long term prospects will be for oil shipping, but there are some modest advantages while oil demand world-wide is still growing.
Currently TNKs dividend is at their current policy floor, meaning that it can't go any lower unless the space really crashes and burns from 2019 onward. And it can potentially go much higher, but really only if the sector sees a recovery and the earliest that is likely would be around Q4 2018 (probably not Q4 this year). Investors in the space right now are looking to see significant scrapping (for several reasons) this year and in 2018 (unlikely that TNK needs to scrap anything, though). That said, it's a hard business to predict. Anything can happen.
I am currently holding and even adding a little, but my position is seriously down. TNK is probably one of the better-positioned companies in the space and their focus on midi-sized tankers (Aframax and Suezmax class) and avoidance of the VLCCs will probably help them through the current downturn.
-Matt