Bulker owner Golden Ocean Group has given itself another year to continue spending up to $100m in buying back up to 10m of its own shares.
The Nasdaq and Oslo-listed company has already had its share buyback scheme for 12 months and received approval from its board to extend the programme from Thursday.
This means Golden Ocean, in which shipowner John Fredriksen is the biggest shareholder, has just under $90m left to spend on around 8.5m shares.
Interim chief executive Lars-Christian Svensen said Golden Ocean’s stock is undervalued.
“The volatility in capital markets and dry bulk freight sentiment continues, and our share is trading at a discount to underlying substance values,” he said on Tuesday.
“We believe it is in the shareholders’ interest to extend the authorisation to repurchase our common stock as part of its capital allocation strategy.
“During the past 12 months, we have repurchased 1.5m shares at attractive levels and will opportunistically utilise the extended programme as a supplement to our long-term focus on dividend.”
Over the last year, Golden Ocean has spent just over $11.6m on share repurchases.
Some 741,900 shares were repurchased in New York at an average price of $7.84 each and 765,428 shares were bought back on the Oslo Stock Exchange at an average price of NOK 81.2 ($7.40).
Golden Ocean’s share price has fallen by 21% in Oslo and by 25% in New York since its year-to-date peak, seen on both bourses on 3 March this year.
The stock closed at NOK 86.46 in Oslo on Tuesday and was trading on Nasdaq at $7.86 on Tuesday morning in New York.
