A group of shareholders have cashed in their stakes in product tanker owner Hafnia following a volatile period for shipping stocks.
The Singapore-based Oslo-listed owner had indicated on Wednesday that the unnamed group, described as "financial investors", were considering selling out.
On Thursday morning it said the group had sold their entire combined holdings of 11.3m shares at NOK 19 each, giving them proceeds of nearly NOK 216m ($21.2m).
The stock represents 3.1% of the outstanding shares.
The deal was done overnight through an "accelerated" book building process overseen by Pareto Securities and SEB.
Hafnia was trading down 6.2% at NOK 19.18 in Oslo on Thursday.
The move followed nearly 6m other shares being traded on Wednesday, against a year-to-date average of 1m per day.
Upside for sellers?
The stock had ended down 7% at NOK 20.45 on Wednesday. But over the last year the price has ranged from NOK 13 to NOK 29.
Fearnley Securities has a hold rating on the stock.
The Norwegian investment bank said the fact that the investors now have no shares indicates main shareholder BW Group did not sell the stock.
As of mid-February, the two largest shareholders were BW with 231m shares and PAG with 20m.
The company moved to the main board of the Oslo exchange in April.
Fearnley is expecting Hafnia to report earnings per share of 19 cents for the first quarter, but in the second three months this could "easily" be 45 to 55 cents.
Current steel values are NOK 30 per share, added the financial services arm of shipbroker Fearnleys.
The company has a market capitalisation of NOK 7.57bn.
