Nordic American Secondary Offering… A Shareholder ‘Tax’ (NAT)

Nordic American Tankers Limited (NYSE: NAT) is often considered one of the better-run tanker players out there.  For shareholders who bought shares in the last few days that might not feel like the case due to a stock offering.  The company is selling 5.5 million shares of common stock to raise capital.

The use of funds will be to fund acquisitions, shore up the books, and for working capital.  The underwriting syndicate has Morgan Stanley as the book-runner, and the co-managers in the syndicate were listed as DNB Markets and also FBR.  Those underwriters will have an overallotment option of 825,000 shares.

Shares are down 11% at $13.84 and the 725,000 shares in the first few minutes already eclipses the 510,000 shares traded on an average trading day.  This $13.84 price compares to a 52-week trading range of $11.58 to $26.18.

Founder, Chairman, and CEO Herbj Hansson is a CNBC regular, so chances are high that he will be on to talk up the long-term story.

Before the effects of the dilution and taking the 11% drop into consideration, Nordic American Tankers has a market cap of close to $660 million.

JON C. OGG