Capital Tankers Corp has increased the size of its Oslo private placement to $500m after strong investor demand, ahead of a planned listing on Euronext Growth Oslo next month.

The tanker owner, backed by Capital Maritime & Trading Corp, said the share sale was multiple times oversubscribed, prompting the board to raise the primary offering from about $300m to $435m and expand the over-allotment option from roughly $45m to $65m.

A total of 35.7m shares were allocated to more than 900 investors at NOK134 per share, giving a transaction size of NOK4.8bn ($500m) and implying a post-money equity value of about NOK18.2bn. The company will issue just over 31m new shares, raising around NOK4.2bn in gross proceeds, with additional shares over-allotted through a greenshoe arrangement.

As previously announced, the funds will be used mainly to finance the remaining capital commitments for 22 tankers under construction, as well as working capital and general corporate purposes. The larger raise also gives the company room to exercise options on additional vessels if market conditions allow, the company said.

Shares are expected to begin trading around March 17, subject to regulatory approval. The company plans to pursue an uplisting to the main Oslo market and may also consider a future US listing.

Capital Tankers first announced plans this week to spin out a large crude tanker platform into Oslo’s public markets with an initial target of about $345m. The newly formed owner will start with a fleet of 30 crude tankers — including VLCCs, suezmaxes and aframax/LR2s — with most vessels still under construction and a further 13 newbuilding options available through the end of 2026.

Following the listing, Capital Maritime is expected to retain about 74% of the company, leaving a free float of roughly 26%. The upsizing increased the expected free float from just under 20% in the original structure.