US-listed tanker owner Top Ships pledged on Wednesday that it would not carry out equity offerings in order to raise money for expansion this year.
The company announced a “moratorium on new equity offerings” until the end of 2023, which is meant to “significantly enhance the trading stability of its common shares”.
Under this moratorium, Top Ships — a frequent user of equity offerings to raise money for growth —said it “will not conduct any new equity offerings, public or private”.
Furthermore, chairman and chief executive Evangelos Pistiolis pledged not to sell any common shares, either directly or through affiliates.
Executive management will not receive any bonuses this year. Top Ships also said it will not carry out any reverse stock splits, unless necessary to remain compliant with Nasdaq listing rules.
This is not the first time that Top Ships has announced such a policy. An identical set of measures, adopted for 12 months, was announced in August 2020.
Top Ships is the owner of two VLCCs, five suezmaxes and three MR tankers — all built after 2019 and all but one on long-term charters with major commodity traders.
To finance part of its newbuilding expansion, Top Ships was one of several Greek-controlled shipping companies that successfully raised money through share issues arranged by investment bank Maxim Group.
However, such share issues have attracted criticism by some shareholders who consider them dilutive.
As recently as December last year, Top Ships has been cautioning investors that the price and trading volume of its common shares was extremely volatile at times, even within a single trading day.
Robust tanker markets may provide scope for calmer trading going forward.
The company announced on Wednesday record net income of $18.9m in 2022 — more than twice as much as the $8.6m profit it eked out in 2021, when it had reversed a $22.8m loss from 2020.
That result was underpinned by revenue soaring last year at an annual pace of 43% to $80.66m.
However, deducting dividends and deemed dividend equivalents for preferred shares, the company still spilt red ink for common shareholders.
Net loss attributable to common shareholders reached $9.19m last year, compared with $5.4m in profit in 2021.
