Shares of OceanPal, Diana Shipping's newly listed spin-off of three older bulkers, skyrocketed on the first day of trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York.
The Semiramis Paliou-led bulker owner in late October announced it would spin off three older vessels into a separately listed company called OceanPal.
OceanPal's shares, which began trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange on Tuesday under the ticker symbol OP, jumped 47% to close at $5.22 on Tuesday after almost 4.5m units traded.
The stock gained another 40% in the first half-hour of after-hours trading to reach $6.80.
As part of the transaction, Diana gave each shareholder a $0.10 dividend on 9 November and one OceanPal unit for every 10 owned Diana shares upon completing the spin-off on Tuesday.
The spin-off consists of Diana's 73,600-dwt Protefs (built 2004), 73,700-dwt Calypso (built 2005) and 171,800-dwt Salt Lake City (built 2005).
Diana also gave OceanPal the right of first refusal over another six Diana bulkers, which company filings do not identify.
The Calypso is employed at a gross $10,400 per day in a one-year timecharter with Viterra that expires in December.
The Protefs and Salt Lake City will be employed until the second quarter of next year, earning $10,650 per day and $13,000 per day respectively.
Diana's shares, which trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol DSX, slid 5.6% to close at $4.20 on Tuesday.
"Today’s DSX sell-off had very little to do with the OceanPal spin," analyst Randy Giveans said.
"All of dry bulk was down with the broader markets on Omicron fears and inflation concerns. The OceanPal spin has been known for some time, so should have had little to no impact on DSX today."
