Dry cargo shop Lightship Chartering has bought into UK rival Braemar as part of a wider programme of direct financial investments in shipping.
A filing to the London Stock Exchange shows the Geneva-based company with 1m shares in Braemar.
The slice of 3.04% is worth £2.94m ($3.73m), based on a trading price of £2.94 in London on Monday, up 5.76%.
The acquisition was made on 29 December, the filing reveals.
Braemar has a market capitalisation of £96.8m.
Lightship chief executive Sune Fladberg told TradeWinds: “It’s quite simple — we believe in shipping in the foreseeable future and are looking to invest further into it.
“We think Braemar has a very attractive valuation currently.”
Fladberg said the brokerage has carried out “various” other direct financial investments, without specifying details.
In December, TradeWinds reported that Lightship was hiring 10 brokers from three rivals for its office in Singapore, which it said would boost its business in the Far East and the Pacific region.
The hires were not named but Lightship described them as “reputable and well established”.
More brokers recruited
Fladberg told TradeWinds this has now expanded to 12 brokers from four different shops.
The Singapore office, which handles bulkers of up to panamax in size, opened last year and is managed by Thorbjorn Mangor Zorn, who joined from Ifchor.
Lightship said it plans to boost its broker headcount to at least 250 worldwide over the next five years. It told TradeWinds that it employs 110 brokers currently.
Braemar made a strong return to the London Stock Exchange in November after a four-and-a-half-month suspension.
The London shop applied for a trading halt on 3 July after missing a financial reporting deadline as it examined legacy broking deals.
