Singapore shipping giant BW Group has begun selling off its stake in US-listed VLCC owner DHT Holdings.
A US securities filing revealed a series of share disposals from 11 March to 24 April at an average price of around $11.50 per share
This amounts to proceeds of about $18m from the shedding of 1.6m shares.
The stock closed up 1.8% at $11.48 in New York on Thursday.
BW Group now has a stake of 14.9% in the tanker company, down from about 16% previously.
The group said in a filing last month that it would put 7.5m DHT shares up for sale.
A further 5.86m remain available to sell from this total, Fearnley Securities said.
BW’s stake would fall to about 11% if all of these were offloaded.
The 4.65% slice the group put up for sale was worth $82.9m, the March filing said.
BW Group acquired the shares in 2017 when DHT bought its VLCC fleet, consisting of nine vessels and two newbuildings, in a stock deal.
Earlier share sales
In 2019, the company sold 14.68m shares in DHT to “balance its portfolio”, chairman Andreas Sohmen-Pao said at the time. The deal netted BW $101.3m.
“BW Group merged its VLCC fleet with DHT in 2017 with a view to supporting consolidation and building a stronger VLCC platform,” Sohmen-Pao said in 2019.
“Having since made significant additional investments across the tanker, gas and upstream sectors, BW Group divested some of its shares of DHT common stock in order to balance its portfolio. We also believe this will improve free float and liquidity for other shareholders in DHT.”
BW Group views DHT as a well-managed company with a clear strategy and strong capital discipline.
It pledged to remain a large and supportive shareholder following the 2019 sale.
After that disposal, the BW stake stood at 23.3% of the company. A further 7.3m shares were sold in 2020.
