Danish product tanker owner Torm saw its share price drop nearly 13% after its largest shareholder, Oaktree Capital Management, moved to sell up to 5.75m shares.
Oaktree-controlled OCM Njord Holdings, which owns around 65% of Torm, has tapped Citigroup, Evercore and Jefferies to carry out the sale of existing shares equal to approximately 6%.
An option for an additional 750,000 shares is on the table in the next 30 days, which would bring Oaktree’s total divestment to nearly 7%.
The New York and Copenhagen Nasdaq-listed owner was trading yesterday at $32.70 per share. After the sale, Njord is expected to own around 48.8m shares, or 48m (58%) if all purchase options are exercised.
The total value of the sale, excluding discounts, is approximately $188m as of March 29. Earlier this year, Oaktree also offloaded about 25.2m shares (5%) in Torm’s Oslo-listed rival Hafnia for $127.6m.
Torm currently controls and operates a fleet of 83 product tankers, 55 of which are owned, while the rest are chartered in with the option and/or obligation to buy. Five purchased ships are set to join the fleet, and the company has about $123m lined up for the second quarter for additional secondhand tonnage.
