No US-listed shipowner rewarded investors at the same level as Irish product tanker company Ardmore Shipping in 2022 as the stock quadrupled in value at one point before giving back some gains in December.
Ardmore often seems to operate in the shadow of giant New York-listed competitor Scorpio Tankers, which also had a great year. Ardmore has less than one-fifth Scorpio’s $3bn market capitalisation and while it trades more than $10m worth of shares per day, it is well short of its peer’s $63m.;
So it might seem there was reason for champagne bottles to be popping at Ardmore headquarters in Cork, Ireland, with bragging rights secured for the year, but that is never been the style of even-keeled and understated chief executive Anthony Gurnee.
“We are of course very happy with the stock price recovery during 2022 but, as we all know, the equity market has a life of its own,” Gurnee told TradeWinds upon being told of the Jefferies ranking.
“Of more immediate interest to us is our operating performance and earnings, which we worked hard on.”
Gurnee added that he is proud of the Ardmore team’s achievements.
“We think this had an equal impact on our NAV [net asset value] and thus our stock price (through retained earnings), as the rise in asset values during 2022,” said Gurnee, who was a career finance man and former US Navy officer before leading Ardmore public in 2013.
Ardmore has a fleet of 22 product and chemical tankers, with the core of the fleet its 16 MRs.
While tanker stocks have come off the boil since early December, there are signs that the product market could have more room to run moving into 2023, with catalysts to include the European Union ban on Russian product cargoes effective 5 February.
Some buzz around those market dynamics was created this week by — no surprise — Scorpio Tankers as it highlighted a $14,000-per-day increase in first-quarter bookings for its LR2 tankers — a vessel class Ardmore does not have.
Scorpio won a price-target upgrade to $75 per share from Clarksons Securities and even a bump up to $55 from perennial Scorpio sceptic Deutsche Bank as analysts recognised its improving fundamentals.
But might similar firming be in store for Ardmore as it enters a new trading year?
Gurnee is characteristically upbeat but cautious.
“Every year brings new surprises in the shipping business,” he said.
“But from where we sit today, the outlook is very positive, both in terms of oil market dynamics and supply-demand fundamentals. The surprises could be as much to the upside as the downside. Time will tell.”
