Norway’s mini-bulker specialist Wilson is returning some of its expanded earnings to shareholders in the form of stock buybacks.

The Oslo-listed company said it has launched the repurchase programme this month after authorisation granted on 7 April at an annual general meeting.

The scheme will continue for a year to try to reduce the company’s capital, Wilson added.

The programme will comprise a maximum of 300,000 shares up to a spend of NOK 19.5m ($2.1m).

At any one time, the company can buy no more than 25% of the average daily traded volume in the previous 20 days.

As a guide, Wilson said the average daily volume during the last 20 trading days before the announcement was 6,358 shares.

The stock was trading at NOK 68 in Oslo on Tuesday, down 0.3%.

The company has engaged investment bank DNB Markets to implement the share deals.

Wilson’s earnings rocketed in the first quarter and it spies promising long-term indicators for its markets.

The net result to 31 March was €23.77m, up from €7.9m in the same period of 2021.

Strong start to the year

The company said it had made a strong start to the year, with healthy demand for cargoes.

Revenue rose €25m to €101m, while the fleet averaged rates of €6,327 per day in a good spot market, up from €3,987 a year ago.

Wilson runs 123 ships, including 101 owned vessels. In the second and third quarters, this total will be swelled by 11 units.