Scorpio Tankers executives have raised their interest in the shipowner buying stock worth more than $4.5m in the same week as suggesting now is the time to take on risk.

New York-listed Scorpio this week cut back its dividend and boosted its liquidity with a triple sale-and-leaseback deal.

It came alongside a bullish quarterly conference call in which president Robert Bugbee suggested earnings would rip as the market improved.