Croatian tanker operator Tankerska Plovidba raises US31 millions for fleet expansion
Croatian tanker operator Tankerska Plovidba raised US$31 million in a successful IPO of its product tanker spin-off Tankerska Next Generation (TNG) completed at the Zagreb Stock Exchange, the company said in its press release.
The offer fell short of the full allotment of 3.6 million shares ($USD 41 million), but with 3.2 million shares sold reached almost twice over the minimum IPO success threshold of US$16 mil. After floating TNG’s shares on the ZSE, Tankerska Plovidba will hold a 55.6% stake in the company. Some 14% of the offering was taken up by international investors and the rest went to Croatia’s institutional and small investors. The IPO has taken TNG’s capital to almost $US70 million. The company has previously announced it may look to raise more capital at Oslo or New York stock exchanges.
TNG was founded in August 2014 with the aspiration to focus on the MR product tanker market. The company intends to use the new capital to acquire 2 newly built or resale eco-designed MR2 product tankers, which will take its fleet to 5 product tankers with the total of some 250.000 dwt. TNG already operates 2 modern MR2 product tankers originally fully owned by its founder and largest shareholder Tankerska Plovidba and is scheduled to take delivery of a 50.300 dwt product tanker from Korea’s SPP Shipbuilding Yard later in the year.
TNG’s IPO was not only the first successful shipping offering at Zagreb Stock Exchange in a long time, it was the first IPO of any Croatian company since 2009, when the full force of global financial crisis hit Croatia’s equity and financial markets. The IPO’s underwriters were InterCapital Securities and Raiffeisenbank Austria.
“We felt it was the right time to spin-off our product tanker segment and turn to the Croatian equity market for capital, since we knew that, after years of investors pessimism, the market was ready for the right proposition”, said CEO of Tankerska Plovidba Mario Pavić.
“Financial markets are showing renewed trust in tanker operators, which presents young, agile and focused companies such as TNG with a huge opportunity. We are confident the product tanker market will continue to deliver”, said CEO of Tankerska Next Generation John Karavanić.
Croatia-based Tankerska Plovidba is the country's biggest shipping company which owns a fleet of 12 tankers and bulk carriers. It delisted its shares from the Zagreb Stock Exchange in March this year, when the company announced it intends to float its spin-offs instead. Tankerska Next Generation is its first such project.