Tufton Oceanic Assets insiders have increased their holdings in a series of share deals.
A filing to the London Stock Exchange shows that principals of the shipping fund’s investment manager Tufton Investment Management (TIM) have acquired an additional 613,000 shares.
This slice would be worth $668,000 at the current price of $1.09 in London, up 1.4%.
The share price has been sliding over the past 12 months from $1.37 in October 2021.
Tufton Group shareholders, including principals, now have 5.98m shares. This is just under 2% of the company.
The biggest shareholders in the tanker, bulker, container ship and gas carrier company are UK pension funds.
Tufton Group staff own another 466,000 shares and non-executive directors control 403,000.
The filing also reveals that unnamed former Tufton Group shareholders have a holding of 3m shares.
TIM is led by chief executive Andrew Hampson and chief investment officer Paulo Almeida.
A separate filing shows that Tufton Oceanic chairman Robert King has bought 15,000 shares at $1.11 for an outlay of $16,650.
He now has a stake of 0.02% through owning 60,000 shares.
And director Christine Rodsaether acquired 10,000 shares at the same price.
She has 30,000 shares after the deal.
Corporate shake-up
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.
This enabled the management team, led by Hampson and Almeida, to acquire a “substantially increased” stake in the business.
Tufton Oceanic said earlier this week it was raising its dividend sights in improved tanker markets.
“Encouraged by strong visible cash flows from increased charter cover, diversification and continued supply-side recovery,” the company said it has lifted its annual pay-out target from $0.08 to $0.085 per share, starting from the fourth quarter.
The London-listed shipowner said it is paying out $0.02 per share for the third quarter. Net asset value stood at $456.3m on 30 September.
The operating profit in the quarter was $0.039 per share — or $12m.
