Norwegian investor Joakim Hannisdahl has cashed out of VLCC owner DHT Holdings, but is still positive on tanker prospects.
Eight days ago, he added more stock in the New York company at an $8.17 per share average, with the shares making up 4.9% of his private portfolio .
He described this as “potentially a short-term trade on a VLCC pure play” trading at 85% of its net asset value (NAV).
A day later, he sold out of DHT completely at an $8.41 average.
The stock was trading at $8.74 in New York on Tuesday.
The deal was mainly a trade on surging activity during the last laycan days of June and ahead of the July supply cuts from the Middle East Gulf.
VLCC spot rates jumped to more than $100,000 at the end of last week.
“Although I had expected more than the 3% gain I made, it does not impact the decision to divest the trade according to the plan,” Hannisdahl said.
“I still expect the 1m barrel per day Saudi cuts to have a material impact on the VLCC spot market from around this week,” due to the fixture scheduling move into the first decade of July and the likely lower oil supply.
He identified relatively low oil prices as another point of concern that could lead to an extended Saudi Arabian cut into August.
Positive view for the fourth quarter and beyond
Hannisdahl is working on launching his new Gersemi Asset Management fund in Oslo.
“I still have 35% long exposure towards oil tankers due to my positive view for Q4 and beyond. I am hopeful that pricing will stay at current levels until the fund is up and running again, expected 3 July,” he added.
The former Cleaves Asset Management man said work is progressing according to plan.
He is about to bring investors in through the fund’s administrator in Ireland.
“We acknowledge that the timeline is tight, and the number of investors could potentially overwhelm the fund’s administrator, so we will hold the [discounted] founder’s share class open for subscriptions at least for end-June and end-July,” he said.
