Two big UK investment funds have sold down stakes’ worth about $15.6m in Tufton Oceanic Assets. The UK shipowner has seen its stock price rise 33% over the last year.

In a London stock exchange filing, London’s Pictet Asset Management said it had cut its stake from 9.23% to 4.64% on 19 July, with 12.5m shares left. A day later, UK-based Newton Investment Management reduced its holding from 5.22% to 4.85%, retaining 13.1m shares. This is a combined disposal of about 5% of the shipowner.

The share price was $0.82 in September 2020, but is now $1.16, up 33% over a year, and 2% over the last week. Tufton Oceanic’s market cap is around £227m ($312m).

Market Screener previously listed Pictet as the third and Newton as the fourth largest shareholders in Tufton Oceanic. East Riding of Yorkshire Council is listed as the biggest investor on 10.3%, with West Yorkshire Pension Fund second on 7.9%.

On 22 July, Tufton Oceanic, which has 21 ships, said the shipping industry is in “the early innings of a multi-year upcycle”. The company pledged to keep recycling capital across the tanker, bulker, and containership segments.

In a quarterly update, Tufton Oceanic said its net asset value (NAV) was $312.65m as of 30 June, while the NAV return was 11.7% as containership and bulker values rose strongly.

Encouraged by the strong performance and increased portfolio yield, the board has raised its annual dividend target from $0.075 to $0.08 per share, starting in the third quarter.