Andreas Sohmen-Pao’s BW Group has extended its selldown of stock in former takeover target Dorian LPG.
The Singaporean Group has now shed shares worth $5.7m in its rival during the past two weeks, filings show.
As TradeWinds reported last week BW had begun to offload Dorian stock, cutting its interest to 7.4 million shares via sales in two tranches.
A fresh filing shows the trend has continued this week with two additional slithers sold, further reducing BW’s stake to 7.16 million shares.
Dorian stock was trading up marginally at $9.04 each at the time of writing today, against a 52-week high of $9.32 per share.
BW Group, the major shareholder in VLGC market leader BW LPG, made a move to buy Dorian last summer but after tabling two bids pulled the proposal.
It has since sought consolidation elsewhere in the LPG space with a major investment in Epic Gas.
BW Group remains the second largest shareholder in Dorian, behind Kensico Capital Management but ahead of Wellington Management Group.
BW Group made its play for Dorian last year with the VLGC market still in a cyclical downturn that followed a record boom in freight rates earlier in the decade.
This year the market has taken a turn for the better with analysts at Jefferies noting rates tripled to $45,000 per day in the second quarter this year.
“After multiple years of LPG fleet growth outpacing LPG seaborne demand growth, we believe the LPG shipping market is continuing to show signs of a recovery as charter rates continue to remain firm,” said analyst Randy Giveans in the bank’s shipping quarterly.
“Looking ahead to 2H19 and 2020, we believe the potential exists for the LPG carrier market to improve as US LPG production continues to increase with US drilling activity and LPG carrier deliveries continue to slow as reflected in the historically low orderbook.”
