US private equity giant Oaktree Capital Management is continuing to cut its stake in tanker owner Torm.
A US securities filing shows the company’s OCM Njord Holdings has put 3.53m restricted shares in the Danish operation up for sale.
This represents about 3.7% of US and Denmark-listed Torm, according to Fearnley Securities.
Torm’s shares closed down 0.15% on the Nasdaq on Monday at $34.19. This would make the Oaktree slice worth about $121m.
Oaktree, which was the key player in a post-financial crisis refinancing of the shipowner, held 44.1m shares in Torm as of 30 June.
This is a stake of 46.1%, which would shrink to 42.4% if the stock is offloaded.
Oaktree remains the controlling shareholder.
Fearnley Securities calculates Torm’s net asset value in line with trading at DKK 225 ($33.54).
The investment bank last week cut Torm and its product tanker peer group from “buy” to “hold” on the back of what it said was a less favourable risk-reward outlook.
In May, Oaktree put 6.9m Torm shares on sale, with underwriter Citigroup giving a 30-day option to buy up to 1.03m more shares. The US fund had 54% of Torm at that time.
Pulled share sale in 2023
In December 2023, Oaktree managed to cash in some of its shares at the second attempt, for $84.6m.
The group had been trying to capitalise on Torm’s strong performance last year.
Oaktree also tried to sell 5m shares in March last year 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 2023, according to a previous filing.
