Major Frontline investor UBS Group has offloaded some of its shares after a big jump in the price this year.

The Zurich-based investment bank said in a filing to the Oslo Stock Exchange that its holding has fallen below the 5% reporting threshold.

UBS sold 810,000 shares on 8 November. At Wednesday’s price of $13.98, these shares are worth $11.32m.

The Swiss bank now has 10.41m shares, or a slice of 4.63%.

The UBS shareholding does not appear to have been previously reported.

It is not clear who has acquired the shares.

The Frontline share price has risen 85% so far in 2022 in recovering tanker markets.

The stock has been a big draw for major investors in recent weeks.

US investment giant BlackRock announced a big holding earlier this month.

The move followed a similar investment in Fredriksen’s bulker giant Golden Ocean Group in September.

Interest from BlackRock and Goldman Sachs

BlackRock said it had amassed a stake of 5.13% — a slice worth $153m.

But the fund later issued a correction, saying that “following identification of correct issued shares, holding remains below 5% in aggregate”.

The exact ownership is therefore unknown.

Frontline chief executive Lars Barstad welcomed BlackRock as a significant shareholder at a time when the “fundamentals of our market are starting to shine through in earnings”.

Frontline, which is listed in both New York and Oslo, is currently trying to tie up a big combination with Belgian partner Euronav.

Last month, US investment bank Goldman Sachs revealed it was holding a 5.26% stake in Frontline, but this could be on behalf of a client. The stake has since been adjusted to 5.02%.

Fredriksen himself controls about 36% of Frontline.