UK shipping fund Tufton Oceanic Assets has another $39m to spend on vessel acquisitions after selling out an over-subscribed tap issue of new shares.
The London-listed company said on 4 November that it was launching an offer to capitalise on attractive sale-and-purchase opportunities.
Tufton has now revealed 28.05m shares were sold at $1.39 each.
"The tap issue was well supported by new and existing shareholders and was materially oversubscribed," the shipowner said.
Demand for stock was above the authority granted by shareholders earlier this year for the sale of up to 10% of the equity.
Key staff and affiliates of investment manager Tufton Investment Management have been allocated 671,567 shares.
Tufton brought in joint brokers Hudnall Capital and Singer Capital Markets to run a bookbuilding process for the issue.
The sale price was a 1.4% discount to the closing price of $1.41 on 3 November.
This was also a 3.1% premium to its net asset value on 30 September of $1.35.
Bulkers leaving the fleet?
Shareholders rejected the chance at the October annual general meeting to authorise the sale of up to another 10% of shares.
In August, the company placed $12.4m of shares at $1.18 each.
Last month, Tufton banked $16.2m from an "opportunistic" sale of an unnamed handysize.
The shipowner said this disposal, together with two bulker acquisitions in September, demonstrated the company's commitment to environmental, social and governance factors as well as capital re-allocation.
Earlier in November, TradeWinds reported that London-based, Laurent Cadji-led shipowner Union Maritime was continuing its dry bulk acquisition campaign with the planned purchase of five handysize vessels from Tufton Oceanic, financed by Piraeus Bank.
Neither side has commented on the transaction, which is believed to be worth about $72m.
