With Gener8 Maritime hitting a 52-week trading low Wednesday before riding a market rally higher, it was timely for shareholder and director Nicolas Busch to face a question about the stock’s performance.

Busch happened to be a speaker on the agenda at Marine Money’s annual Ship Finance Forum, and interviewer Robert Bugbee of the Scorpio group didn’t miss the opportunity.

Although he didn’t reference the trading low in a friendly chat with Navig8 group chief executive Busch, Bugbee did press on why Gener8 shares have consistently traded below net asset value (NAV) even when there was a robust period for its core VLCC market.

Busch alluded to Gener8’s new fleet of VLCCs newbuildings not earning any premium in the trading market for having superior fuel consumption to older units, but Bugbee pressed him further: “Why are you trading at a steep discount to NAV?”

“I think it’s a combination of things,” Busch said, while reminding that he’s not an executive of Gener8, whose chief executive is veteran New York shipowner Peter Georgiopoulos.

“I think it’s a combination of things,” Busch said. “The markets in general are worried about asset prices deflating and they’re worried about leverage. I do think the markets worry about the sustainability of those business models.

“I don’t run the company, but I suspect that people worry about when these companies will need fresh equity,” Busch said, adding that showing a stronger balance sheet through asset sales or other measures might change the perception.

Both Bugbee and Busch, through Navig8, have something to do with the current composition of the Gener8 fleet, which is one of the world’s largest collections of VLCCs.

Gener8 came to exist through the 2015 combination of Georgiopoulos’ General Maritime and Navig8 Crude Tankers. Navig8 brought 14 VLCC newbuildings into the operation, which was the last mainstream shipping IPO in June 2015.

Genmar in 2014 had bought seven VLCC newbuildings from Bugbee’s Scorpio Tankers for $735m.

Gener8 now operates a fleet of 43 wholly owned tankers, with 26 VLCCs.

The New York company hit the 52-week trading low of $3.52 earlier Wednesday before a broader stock market rally following the US presidential election helped lift it to $3.77 — up 5.9% from the previous close.

Gener8’s one-year high was $10.12.