US-listed Scorpio Tankers is continuing to reward shareholders with stock buybacks in buoyant product carrier markets.
The company said it had snapped up 220,504 shares last week at an average price of $40.90 each, and a deal for another 222,396 shares was announced on Monday at $41.27.
This represents an outlay of $18.2m.
The stock closed up more than 3% at $40.94 in New York on Monday.
The deals follow the repurchase of 137,459 shares earlier in September, and 1.66m shares in August.
The company has about $151m remaining under its securities repurchase programme.
Scorpio Tankers is enjoying strong earnings from its fleet as product tanker rates rise.
The owner is also taking the opportunity to exercise purchase options in leases to buy chartered vessels.
Earlier this month, it agreed to acquire another LR2 to reduce financial costs.
The New York-listed company said it has served notice to exercise its option to acquire the 110,000-dwt STI Sanctity (built 2016) from Norwegian sale-and-leaseback company Ocean Yield.
Ships being bought out of leases
The deal followed a number of tanker purchases by Scorpio in recent weeks.
Earlier in September, it declared eight purchase options to boost its owned fleet against a backdrop of strong forward bookings.
Analysts believe the Monaco-based product carrier owner is heading for a record profit in the third quarter.
Greek tanker owner United Maritime Corp has also gone down the share buyback route.
The US-listed owner said it has completed a $3m repurchase this month, and has already lined up another $3m splurge on its stock.
