Taking advantage of a three-month, near-50% surge in its stock price Wednesday, Monaco-based oil shipper Scorpio Tankers (NYSE: STNG) announced that it has priced a follow-on offering to sell 30.7 million shares of its own common stock on or about February 4.
At the offer price of $7.50 per share, Scorpio stands to reap as much as $230 million in gross proceeds from the offering. Yet Scorpio -- unprofitable and carrying nearly $197 million in debt (against $38 million in cash) -- says it will be using the proceeds of its offering primarily to buy new tankers, although "working capital and other general corporate purposes" were also named as potential uses for the cash.
News of the liquidity event helped Scorpio steer clear of the sell-off on Wall Street today, as its shares climbed 1.5%, to close at $8.03 -- significantly ahead of the new shares' offering price.
