Tufton Oceanic Assets insiders have added to their ownership in the London-listed shipowning fund with share purchases worth $270,000.
Investment manager Tufton Investment Management’s chief executive Andrew Hampson and chief investment officer Nicolas Tirogalas together acquired 250,064 shares, a filing said on Friday.
Tufton group shareholders — defined as principal investors, staff, non-executive directors and former shareholders — now hold 11.94m shares, up from 11.21m last June.
This equates to 4.1% of the issued share capital.
UK pension funds are the biggest owners of the company.
The share was trading at $1.08 in London on Friday.
Tirogalas replaced previous CIO Paulo Almeida in November.
The new man has spent 15 of the past 25 years in shipping and offshore.
He is the former managing director of Christos Economou’s TMS Cardiff Gas.
As executive vice president of Christos’ father George Economou’s TMS Group, he was involved in investments and capital raises in dry bulk, tankers, container ships, LNG carriers, LPG carriers and offshore.
Tufton Oceanic, which owns 22 tankers, bulkers and gas carriers, last month signalled a major change ahead.
Selling the fleet?
The company looks likely to sell its vessels by the end of the decade, but a new Tufton-backed venture could take its place.
The fund has been considering its near-term future as shipping moves towards decarbonisation.
It will start to “realise” its portfolio of ship assets from 2028 towards the end of the decade.
TradeWinds understands the intention is to start liquidating the portfolio and not reinvest the money in more vessels.
But nothing is set in stone and this could change if markets do.
If the fund is wound up, a fresh vehicle could be set up looking at new-fuel vessels, so that investors can make the shift to low-carbon shipping.
The fund, listed through an IPO in 2017, was never intended as an evergreen operation.
In January 2021, a corporate reorganisation saw senior management boost their Tufton Oceanic stakes as part of a “carefully planned leadership strategy developed over the past few years”.
A new financial partner, an unnamed European family office, acquired shares from a number of Tufton’s long-standing shareholders.
