Arne Blystad is set to secure an Oslo over the counter listing for Songa Bulk on Friday, confirming increasing investor appetite for shipping in Norway.
Blystad, with support from Fearnley Securities and Clarksons Platou Securities, is expected to confirm tomorrow morning that it will be the first shipping company in two years to float on Oslo’s junior market.
TradeWinds understands that interest in the offering has been strong, with the $50m lower target passed on Monday.
The final sum raised, however, has yet to be determined with a meeting set for tomorrow morning to approve the final details.
Blystad has put $15m of his own cash into the project, which marks the capital markets return for former Golden Ocean chief executive Herman Billung.
Billung was unable to guide on the final outcome of the offering when contacted by TradeWinds today.
He said simply that the results would be known tomorrow and he was very happy with the performance of both joint-managers.
Songa Bulk set out on the road to the OTC last week with a view to collect between $50m and $100m.
Nearly a decade ago, Blystad had more than 30 bulkers on order but sold all the contracts before the 2008 market crash.
He sold its last owned bulker of that period, the 47,000-dwt Songa Nor (built 1996), for $18.5m in 2011.
Blystad only moved back into bulkers in June when he took a 50% stake in the Norwegian K/S company which bought the 32,000-dwt Western Stavanger (built 2010) for a reported $6m.
After hiring Billung this summer the company went on to buy the Tsuneishi-built 82,000-dwt Ten Maru (built 2008) from Wilmar of Singapore for $11.1m.
Blystad is today primarily involved in tankers, with 15 smaller chemical carriers and a controlling stake in the heavylift company Offshore Heavy Transport.
