Shares of Bermudian-based Nordic American Tankers lost more than a quarter of their value yesterday after the company priced a share offering well below its market price.

Low charter rates for oil tankers have hit the company’s bottom line in recent quarters and the firm decided to sell 40 million shares to recapitalise.

Yesterday, Nordic American priced the shares at $2.75 each — well below Tuesday’s closing price of $3.67 on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange — in order to raise $110 million.

As a result, shares plummeted to close at $2.65 in yesterday’s trading, a fall of 27.7 per cent.

In a statement, Nordic American said: “The company intends to use the net proceeds of this offering to be part of the recapitalisation programme, primarily to repay outstanding amounts under its current credit facility originally of 2004, finance the growth of NAT and for general corporate purposes.”