Wenaas Group has increased its shareholding in Norwegian bulker owner Belships by 71%.
The Norwegian investment company has acquired just under 7.5 million shares in Belships, according to a filing to the Oslo Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
The acquisition has raised Wenaas' shareholding in the company to 18,050,670 shares in total, which is equivalent to 8.5% of the shipowner's shares and votes.
"We are of course pleased that a quality investor like Wenaas increases their stake in Belships," Lars Christian Skarsgard, Belships' chief executive told TradeWinds.
"We take this as a vote of confidence and will work hard to deserve the trust."
In May, Wenaas Group received a tranche of just over 8 million Belships shares as compensation for its sale of its last wholly owned ship, the 58,700-dwt supramax Viola (built 2008), which has been renamed Belcargo.
The Wenaas group has a diverse portfolio of investments including hotels, alpine ski resorts and stocks.
Belships' share price has risen by 43% since 1 January and was trading at NOK 7.15 as of 09:45hrs in Oslo on Thursday.
The company has had a busy year since merging with Frode Teigen's Lighthouse in December, with Skarsgard joining in mid-March.
The shipowner has completed a string of sale-and-purchase deals and raised around $8.8m through a share offerings in May and July.
Belships says its strategy "is to grow accretively as a fully integrated shipowner and operator of geared bulk carriers".
