Wisdom Marine Lines has raised TWD 400m ($13.3m) by selling new shares to fund its orderbook as the Taiwanese bulker owner stays on track with its expansion plans.
The Taipei-listed shipowner said the newly issued shares were priced at TWD 21.3, lower than the closing price of TWD 22.55, according to an exchange filing on Thursday.
“The money will be used to fund out fleet expansion as we continue to take delivery of our newbuildings,” Wisdom Marine said.
Wisdom Marine said it will take delivery of a handysize, a supramax and a post-panamax bulker in the second half of this year.
The company is also due to take delivery of seven handysizes, one supramax and four post-panamax bulker newbuildings in 2021.
The public offering, underwritten by Hua Nan Securities, came as stock market conditions stabilised in Taiwan in recent weeks.
The Taiwan Capitalization Weighted Stock Index has recovered from a collapse in March that was caused by the Covid-19 crisis.
Wisdom Marine's share price has moved between TWD 22.5 and TWD 24.5 for most of May.
“The stock market has been relatively stable in Taiwan in recent weeks,” chief financial officer Bruce Hsueh told TradeWinds.
Wisdom Marine, the world’s second largest handysize bulker owner, has been renowned for its resilient financial performance over the past decade.
Since going public on the Taiwan Stock Exchange in 2010, Wisdom Marine has never made a yearly loss.
But the company dipped into a net loss of TWD 127m in the first quarter from a profit of TWD 410m during the same period of 2019.
With low freight earnings, revenues fell to TWD 2.79bn from TWD 3.4bn.
According to local media, Wisdom Marine arranged dry-docking for some of its vessels between January and March when spot rates were low.
While generally preferring period charters of at least 12 months, Wisdom Marine keeps 20% to 25% of its fleet trading in spot markets.
