Daniel Gold’s QVT Financial, one of the largest institutional shareholders in Okeanis Eco Tankers, has boosted its holding in the Alafouzos family backed company.
Gold, who is on the board of Okeanis, added stock worth over $200,000 in the tanker owner.
His move comes just a few days after the company booked a profitable start to 2019 and the Alafouzos family injected $15m via a private placement.
QVT bought 25,000 shares at NOK 70.50 each, raising its overall holding to 1,533,500 shares.
Harvard graduate Gold is a well-known investor in shipping circles and already owned almost 5% of the company.
Other major Okeanis shareholders include State Street Bank and Trust Comp, Credit Suisse Securities and Brown Brothers Harriman.
Okeanis shares last traded at NOK 70.00 each in Oslo, a level at which the tanker owner has a market capitalization of 2.2bn.
The investment comes at a time Okeanis has seen a rising appetite among investors for tanker equities.
Chief operating officer Aristidis Alafouzos told TradeWinds last week the feedback from investors on his last trip to Oslo was firm.
“Tanker sentiment was as strong as we’ve seen it, both among the buy-side and sell-side,” Alafouzos said.
“Perhaps more striking was the constructive view on the tanker segment that fund managers investing across the broader energy sector, and not just shipping, had.”
