Marshall Wace, a London-based hedge fund manager part-owned by private equity giant KKR, has appeared on the radar as a Euronav shareholder.
On 13 March, the investor bought shares to bring its stake in the Belgian tanker giant to 5.1%, just above the mandatory reporting threshold.
A 4.1% stake consists of outright voting rights and the remaining 1% of equivalent financial instruments, Euronav said in a regulatory filing on Monday.
Marshall Wace is understood to have been an investor in Euronav for quite some time. However, this is the first time the hedge fund manager is going above 5%. It focuses on "long/short" equity hedge funds and algorithmic investment strategies.
Its appearance on the scene is a rare piece of good news for battered shipping stocks, notwithstanding that Marshall Wace added to its Euronav stake before what proved to be a brutal week for equities in general, and for shipping in particular.
All 30 shipping stocks under the coverage of investment bank Jefferies lost value between 16 March and 20 March, with the average drop at nearly 22%.
“There have only been a handful of weeks where all companies under coverage have been down — it's certainly a rarity,” Jefferies equity analyst Randy Giveans said.
“It’s understandable with the S&P 500 and crude oil having their worst weeks in decades.”
Brussels and New York-listed Euronav is one of the largest spot players in big tankers. The market has gone through the roof as a result of an oil price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia.
The Baltic Exchange’s Dirty Tanker Index reached a year-to-date high of 1,518 points on 16 March, more than twice as high as in the same time in the previous year.
However, the index shed some of its gains since then. Shipping stocks, on the other hand, rebounded somewhat on 20 March.
