Swiss oil trader Projector SA
will likely sell its half stake in shipping firm FR8 to co-owner
D/S Torm, in a deal that will allow the Danish shipper full
control of FR8, three sources familiar with the matter said on
Friday.
Torm bought 50 percent of the Singapore-based oil
tanker firm from Projector early this year for $125 million.
The deal could happen within one year, the sources told
Reuters.
When contacted, Torm’s Chief Executive Klaus Kjaerulff
declined to comment on whether the company would acquire
Projector’s stake in FR8.
“The only thing I can say is that we are quite comfortable
with the present situation (of FR8)… what will happen in the
future with the shareholding of Projector, I cannot comment,” he
said.
Projector SA could not be immediately reached for comments.
Torm, which has a stock market value of around $2.26
billion, boasts a warchest of $1 billion to be used for
acquisitions, Kjaerulff said during the firm’s first-quarter
results briefing in May.
“Torm has on several occasions underlined the company’s
appetite for new acquisitions,” Karsten Sloth, an analyst at
Denmark’s Jyske Bank, said in a client note in June.
