Andreas Sohmen-Pao used his primetime speaking slot at yesterday’s Pareto Securities’ 30th Annual Energy Conference to warn attendees in the Norwegian capital that Oslo is no longer the attractive place to list that it once was.
Sohmen-Pao, whose BW Group empire is one of the largest names on the Oslo Børs, voiced his concerns about the weak krone exchange rate as well as suggesting that since Euronext bought the stock exchange four years ago the bourse had lost some of its shipping shine.
On the local currency, Sohmen-Pao said: “The fluctuations mean that it is a challenge to invest in shares in Norway. We often see that the companies we have do much better than other companies in the same industries. Nevertheless, it is not reflected in the share price on the Oslo Børs.”
Sohmen-Pao pointed out that the likes of Scorpio, Ardmore and Torm had far greater trading liquidity in the US.
“The Norwegian krone is just not a favoured currency today,” Sohmen-Pao said, adding: “We’re starting to hear investors in other parts of the world saying we don’t want to take so much krone risk. And the result of this is the statistics are starting to clearly support US listings.”
BW Energy, Cadeler, Hafnia, BW Ideol, BW Offshore and BW Epic Kosan are some of the BW brands listed in Oslo. Another subsidiary, BW LPG, is currently exploring an IPO in the US to go alongside its Oslo listing.
A very interesting observation, by one of the giants of blue chip ship owning.
Sohmen-Pao is certainly right.
His observations on the Norwegian Krone and the Oslo Bors can be applied to the British Pound and to the LSE. Funny little currencies, which is why we don’t see them used in charter parties.
Following the decision by ARM to list in New York and not in London, we can perhaps start to say that “The best is the enemy of the good” in stock markets as in so much else in this globalising world.