Since initiating its share buyback plan last month, Flex LNG has bought back 80,000 shares.
The John Fredriksen-backed gas carrier owner reported on Wednesday that it had bought 20,731 of its shares on the Oslo Stock Exchange for NOK 67.46 ($7.64) each or a total of NOK 1.4m.
The company, which trades both in Oslo and on the New York Stock Exchange, dipped into the market four other times since implementing the plan on 19 November, buying back a total of 80,000 shares for NOK 5.4m.
The move pushed its Oslo-traded shares up slightly from NOK 65.80 to NOK 67.80 on Wednesday.
Over the same period, its US-traded shares rose from $7.45 to $7.66, though they had slid $0.31 around lunchtime.
"The stock is trading at [approximately] 45% of book value while our book consists of 10 modern MEGI/XDF LNG carriers on the water with average age of only [approximately] 1 year as well as three newbuildings with scheduled delivery in 2021," chief executive Oystein Kalleklev said in announcing the buyback plan.
"Given the fact that all our ships are fully financed with no maturities prior to H2-2024 and our current cash position, the board has decided to allocate part of our financial resources to pursue such buybacks.”
The plan gives Flex the ability to repurchase up to 4.1m shares at a maximum of $10 per share, or the equivalent in NOK if bought back on the Oslo exchange. It expires in November 2021.
Flex's first repurchase came on 24 November, with 28,800 shares bought back for NOK 67.95 each. It dipped back into the market the next day, with 3,100 at NOK 67.72.
On 2 December and 4 December, it bought back 3,000 shares for NOK 67.50 and 24,369 shares for NOK 67.17 respectively.
