Giant US private equity fund Oaktree Capital Management has cashed in a big slice of its holding in product tanker specialist Hafnia for a significant profit.
The fund was awarded a 20.4% stake in the Oslo company when Hafnia bought the 32-ship fleet of Oaktree’s Chemical Tankers Inc (CTI) in November 2021.
The holding had been cut to 18.74% since then, and on Wednesday Oaktree revealed it was working on a private placement of 44.1m shares or 8.76% of Hafnia.
A stock exchange filing on Thursday showed the deal has been completed at NOK 42 per share or NOK 1.85bn.
The shares were worth about NOK 17 at the time of the CTI deal, meaning a profit of around NOK 1.1bn ($111m) for Oaktree.
The fund retains a 9.98% holding in Hafnia.
There was no word on a buyer, but Hafnia parent BW Group is a leading candidate.
Oaktree has agreed to a 90-day lock-up period for its remaining stock, in a move described as “customary”.
The fund had 95% of CTI after buying out Navig8 Group.
Fearnley Securities, Jefferies and Pareto Securities acted as global coordinators and bookrunners for the placement.
Hafnia share price falls
The Hafnia stock was trading down 5% at NOK 46.10 in Oslo on Thursday.
Oaktree is represented on the company’s board of directors by Guillaume Bayol.
He is the managing director of Oaktree’s European Principal Group.
Additionally, Bayol serves as co-portfolio manager of Fleetscape, the group’s maritime lending platform.
Hafnia wasted no time in offloading six stainless steel chemical carriers acquired as part of its CTI deal.
Within five months it signed an agreement with Dutch owner Ace Tankers Management at a net price of $252.4m.
The sales released $50m of cash to Hafnia. The gross price was about $260m.
TradeWinds has reported Ace Tankers is related to Idan Ofer’s Eastern Pacific Shipping.
