Torm’s controlling shareholder, Oaktree Capital Management, has managed to cash in some of its shares in the Danish tanker owner at the second attempt.
The US private equity player has been trying to capitalise on Torm’s strong performance this year.
A US securities filing showed that Oaktree has reduced its stake to 51m shares, or 59.5% of the company.
The stock was sold on 27 November in a block deal for $84.6m.
This was equivalent to $30.15 per share on that day, and a 5% discount to the closing price in New York, according to Fearnley Securities.
The stock has since fallen and closed at $28 in New York on Monday.
Torm has a market cap of $2.44bn.
Last month, Oaktree put 2.8m shares up for sale, representing 3% of the Danish product carrier specialist.
The filing said the slice was worth $89m at that time and could be sold within 90 days.
Torm’s share price has risen 314% over the past five years.
Failed with March sale
Oaktree also tried to sell 5m shares in March but pulled the deal after investors reacted badly, sending the stock down 13% in New York.
It said at the time it had assessed that “current market conditions” were not conducive to a transaction.
Oaktree, co-led by Howard Marks, had a holding of 63.4% in Torm in June, according to a previous filing.
In November, Torm chief executive Jacob Meldgaard cashed in his shares in strong tanker markets but still has a “significant interest” in the company’s performance, TradeWinds was told.
He sold 510,610 A-shares in Torm for a total of about DKK 110m ($16.1m) between 10 and 14 November.
A spokesman explained that, given the total of more than 84m Torm shares outstanding, it was not a “significant percentage holding”.
But Meldgaard has more shares pending in the form of 810,401 restricted stock units.
