The Week in Review – January 17, 2008

In the midst of the carnage that is Wall Street these days, Golden Ocean Group Limited (“GOGL”) stands out as a true believer. With its share price declining along with the market and sector in general, they believe the market is discounting their shares below their intrinsic value and created a bargain. Not willing to let a bargain go by, the directors of the company acted on Monday and approved the purchase of up to a total of 27.2 million shares (10% of total outstanding shares). Acting under this authority, the company immediately purchased 2.5 million shares at an average price of NOK 25.75 per share. On Tuesday, it acquired a further 1 million shares under the buyback plan at an average price of NOK 24.63. All told, the Company holds, as treasury shares, a total of 3.5 million shares out of a total of 271.8 million outstanding or approximately 1.3%.

Insiders too jumped on the bandwagon. Primary insiders and employees exercised 9,037,500 share options on Tuesday. Out of these options, the Company will issue 8,475,000 shares while the remaining 562,500 options will be cancelled against net cash settlement to the option holders. Of the total, 8,225,000 of the options, which were issued in 2005, had an exercise price of NOK 0.71 per share. Another 562,500 options had a strike of NOK 1.21 per share while the remaining 250,000 options had a strike at NOK 4.82 per share. All primary insiders had a strike of NOK 0.71 per share. All options were clearly well in the money.

This is only an excerpt of The Week in Review – January 17, 2008

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