Cool Company (CoolCo) completed the last two acquisitions of eight LNGCs from Golar LNG Limited on 6th April.
These completions covered all of the shares in the following single purpose companies, being the owners of the LNGCs:
Golar Hull M2048 Corp (owner of ‘Golar Ice’).
Golar LNG NB11 Corp (owner of ‘Golar Kelvin’).
In acquiring the two single purposes companies, the company accepted that their existing lease financing arrangement will continue, supplemented by a new parent guarantee from CoolCo.
CoolCo paid for the shares in the subsidiaries in cash and by the issue of 3,125,000 new common shares of $1 par value in CoolCo to Golar. They have been fully paid and were issued under Bermuda law.
Following the issue, CoolCo has a paid in share capital $40,010,000 represented by the same number of common shares, each of which represents one vote at the company’s general meeting.
Golar now owns 12,510,000 shares in the CoolCo, representing 31.2% of all the shares issued.
CoolCo and Golar also completed the transfer of all of the shares in Cool Pool Limited from Golar to CoolCo. Cool Pool is responsible for the marketing of the LNGCs acquired by CoolCo.
CoolCo and Golar will finalise the overall transaction announced in January this year by transferring Golar’s organisation responsible for the LNGCs technical and commercial operation acquired from Golar to CoolCo. This is expected to be concluded by the second quarter of this year.
Interim CoolCo CEO, Karl Fredrik Staubo, commented “Completion of these final two vessel transfers coincides with an improving chartering environment. The market strengthening is driven by increased focus on energy security, low gas storage levels, new environmental regulations effective from 2023 disadvantaging less fuel-efficient tonnage, and rising yard prices for new orders with lead times into 2026.
“CoolCo recently chartered a vessel for 12 months at a rate of around $120,000 per day, 20% higher than the last 12-month charter agreed for a CoolCo vessel in October, 2021 and twice the actual rate the vessel earned on its prior 12-month charter. We are also seeing increased interest for multi-year charters driving stronger earnings and dividend potential,” he said.
