Fund manager Evermore Global Advisors is the latest major investor to slash its stake in New York-listed Genco Shipping & Trading, and has largely sold out of neighbouring Scorpio Bulkers as well.
New Jersey-based Evermore, which has been Genco's fourth-largest holder, has more than halved its stake, shedding more than 1.2m shares since its last reported holding in May.
In a filing on Friday, Evermore said its new stake was 941,000 shares, or 2.3% of the company, down from 2.2m shares and 5.3% previously.
Evermore's sell-off further solidifies the "Prexit" from Genco shares — the term financial wags have assigned to the exit of private-equity funds from their challenged investments in shipping.
With its filing, the top four financial funds holding stakes in the John Wobensmith-led company have now dramatically reduced their stakes in recent weeks.
This includes top holder Centerbridge Partners, second-place Strategic Value Partners and third-positioned Apollo Global Management.
Contrarian investor Evermore was not stopping with the Genco sell down, however.
Scorpio sell-off
It also disclosed a dramatic disposal of shares in Scorpio Bulkers, the Monaco and New York-based owner that is making a transition out of the dry sector to the wind turbine installation vessel market.
From a previous reporting of 5.8m shares and an 8% stake in April, Evermore is down to just 197,000 shares and a 1.7% stake.
However, the figures are somewhat misleading. Evermore's earlier Scorpio position came before the company executed a reverse 10-for-1 shares split last April. So, Evermore actually went from 580,000 shares to 197,000 — still a reduction of two-thirds.
Evermore and fund manager David Marcus have been strong advocates of consolidation in the fragmented dry bulk business.
“We would love to see more consolidation,” he said in February. “They need to get cracking ... [dry bulk operators are] just too small for big investors to look at. There are no unicorns, no billion-dollar companies in bulkers ... They need to become powerhouses, but [individual shipowner] egos get in the way.”
Genco shares gained $0.04 Friday to close at $8.21, up 0.49%. The stock started the year at $7.53, but has firmed despite the major sell-offs by core holders — a sign of gathering strength for dry bulk stocks.
Its trading volume again was unusually high on Friday, coming in at 1.3m shares against a 90-day average of 451,000.
The gains come as both day rates and futures contracts have fattened in the dry trade.
Scorpio shares fell nearly 7% on Friday, shedding $1.32 to close at $17.72. They began the year at $17.16.
Scorpio is rapidly exiting the dry trade, saying it expects to sell the remainder of its 22 bulkers by the end of the quarter as it pursues a new agenda in the green energy market.
