UK shipping investment fund Tufton Oceanic Assets has come up short in a tap issue that could have raised $25m for the next phase of its expansion.
The London-listed outfit said it had raised $14.7m via the issue of 15m new shares.
The maximum of $25m can still be reached in the early part of 2021 without a new prospectus, a little like a shelf filing in the US.
One market source said: "I wouldn’t be surprised if Tufton raises the remaining $10m capacity very quickly when they find an attractive investment soon.
"There is a lot of investor interest in shipping right now given the strength of the containership and bulker markets."
The offer was launched on 2 March at $0.98 per share, a 1.7% premium to the net asset value at 31 December.
The stock closed at $0.97 in London on Wednesday.
Tufton will list 14.7m of these shares, and keep the rest in treasury.
The company had previously been fully invested, having used up all the $250.4m it raised since its 2017 initial public offering.
This new phase of fundraising comes after a restructuring at the beginning of this year that saw an unnamed European family office buy a stake as a fresh investor.
Pipeline identified
Parent company Tufton Investment Management said it continues to identify "an attractive pipeline of opportunities" across a range of its target sectors, such as tankers, boxships, bulkers and LPG carriers.
The Tufton group manages $1.1bn in shipping assets across a number of funds, including Tufton Oceanic.
Tufton Oceanic bought five more vessels in the second half of 2020, bringing its fleet to 21 ships and fully investing its raised funds.
Net profit for the six-month period was $21.9m, compared to $5.5m in 2019, while revenue rose to $23.3m from $6.8m.
The net asset value per share increased from $0.93 on 30 June to $0.98 on 31 December.
