Tufton Group shareholders continue to up their stake in London-listed shipping fund Tufton Oceanic Assets.
The company said in a filing to the London Stock Exchange that an unnamed principal of its investment manager, Tufton Investment Management (TIM), acquired an additional 175,000 shares on Monday.
Tufton Group shareholders now control 6.16m shares. This is a little over 2% of a company worth $350m.
The ownership has risen from 5.98m shares at the end of 2022 and 5.37m shares at 30 June last year.
The stock closed at $1.15 in London on Monday, meaning the latest acquisition cost is around $200,000.
The move follows a filing in October that showed TIM principals had acquired an additional 613,000 shares.
TIM is led by chief executive Andrew Hampson and chief investment officer Paulo Almeida.
The October filing also revealed that unnamed former Tufton Group shareholders have a holding of 3m shares.
The stock has been sliding over the last year, having reached $1.40 in May 2022.
The biggest shareholders in the tanker, bulker, container ship and gas carrier company are UK pension funds.
Staff have a stake
Tufton Group staff own another 466,000 shares and non-executive directors control 403,000.
Also in October, Tufton Oceanic chairman Robert King bought 15,000 shares at $1.11 for an outlay of $16,650.
And director Christine Rodsaether acquired 10,000 shares at the same price.
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.
The fund has been focusing on product tankers and bulkers in recent months, after selling out of crude tankers and container ships.
