Eastern Pacific Shipping and Golar LNG agree to join forces with spin-off initially operating eight LNG carriers
Eastern Pacific Shipping, the Singapore-based shipping line, and Golar LNG have agreed to join forces to run a Golar spin-off initially comprising eight tri-fuel, diesel-electric LNG carrier in a firm called Cool Company Ltd.
Golar share sale
Dec 3 (LNGJ) - Golar LNG Ltd, the fleet operator and project developer, plans to offer 11 million common shares to the public with a par value $1.00 per share through an underwritten public offering. The company intends to use the net proceeds from the sale to partially repay loans and for funding general corporate activities.
Golar also intends to grant the underwriters of the offering a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1.65M common shares. Joint book-running managers of the share sale are the US Citigroup, and Nordic banks Clarksons Platou Securities and DNB Markets. Norway-based Arctic Securities is acting as a manager for the offering.
LNG carrier fleet owner GasLog attracts Onassis and Tung shipping dynasties to share placement
GasLog Ltd, the LNG carrier fleet owner with 36 ships split with its US affiliate GasLog Partners, has held a private share placement “par excellence” with the participation of Greek and Chinese shipping dynasties, including the Tung family of China, the Onassis Foundation and the Greek Livanos family.
“I’m pleased to welcome the Tung family, with their long maritime history and roots in Asia, as shareholders,” said Paul Wogan, Chief Executive of GasLog.
“We look forward to working with them to deliver the value inherent in the GasLog fleet and our leading operating and commercial platform,” he added.
In 2017, the Tung family sold its controlling block of shares in Orient Overseas (International), the shipping company led by Tung Chee-hwa to China’s Cosco Shipping and Shanghai International Port Group.
The family received HK$34 billion (US$4.4Bln) from the transaction.
Orient Overseas was founded by Tung Chee-hwa's father, Tung Chao-yung, in 1969 and became the seventh-largest container shipping company in the world.
Clarksons Platou Securities AS acted as financial advisor to GasLog during the placement.
A special committee of the board of directors of GasLog, comprised entirely of independent members, reviewed the transaction.
Evercore served as financial advisor to the special committee.
In the placement, GasLog sold 14.40 million common shares at a price of $2.50 per share for total gross proceeds of $36.0M. The net proceeds of the placement are expected to be used for general corporate purposes.
About 75 percent of shares issued in the placement were purchased by GasLog’s directors and affiliates, including 6.50M shares purchased by Blenheim Holdings, wholly owned by the Livanos family and 4.0M common shares were purchased by an affiliate of the Onassis Foundation.
GasLog had posted a first-quarter 2020 loss as LNG demand faced multiple headwinds.
GasLog reported a quarterly net loss of $39.43 million versus a profit of $5.89M in the same three months a year ago.
In between the two earnings statements, GasLog brought in cost-cutting measures and among them was moving its headquarters from Monaco to the Greek port of Piraeus.
In the share placement, Blenheim Holdings also agreed not to sell the shares purchased for a period of 180 days.
“Our first-quarter results announcement set out a series of management actions to address the unprecedented market disruption caused by the Covid 19 pandemic,” said GasLog.
“We also updated the market on the progress of the refinancing of our 2021 debt maturities and the status of our interest rate and foreign exchange swap exposures,” it added.
In order to further supplement the management actions announced on May 6, 2020, the board has decided to raise $36M, or 17.8 percent percent of shares outstanding of the company prior to the private placement, to increase liquidity and further strengthen the capital structure of GasLog.
The board decided to execute the financing on a private placement basis with its core shareholders to provide both certainty and minimise any disruption against a volatile market backdrop.
CEO Wogan explained that he was delighted two of the major shareholders had provided this level of support to the company at this time and as they had done since GasLog’s initial public offering in 2012.
Golar unit’s new CEO
May 1 (LNGJ) - Golar LNG Partners has appointed Karl Fredrik Staubo as its interim Chief Executive after current CEO Graham Robjohns previously said he was stepping down on April 30.
The company said Staubo would formally take up the role with immediate effect. “He has 10 years of experience advising and investing in shipping, energy and infrastructure companies from Magni Partners and Clarksons Platou Securities. At Platou Securities he worked in the corporate finance division, the last three years as Head of Shipping,” said Golar.
Stolt-Nielsen-led Avenir LNG involving Golar and Hoegh completes Oslo share placement
Avenir LNG, a small-scale niche market joint venture involving Stolt-Nielsen Ltd, the shipping and storage group and its Norwegian peers, Hoegh LNG and Golar LNG, is now registered on the Oslo over-the-counter market after holding a private share placement.
Cost of shipping LNG has hit record $200,000 a day for spot cargoes from Atlantic Basin to Asia
The cost of shipping liquefied natural gas has hit a record $200,000 a day for spot cargoes, exceeding the previous record set in 2012 of $180,000 a day, according to an investment bank report.
Baltic Exchange in London trials Australian Gladstone Port-to-Tokyo route for LNG index
The Baltic Exchange in London, one of UK’s oldest financial institutions and now part of the Singapore Exchange (SGX) group, has launched trials of its new liquefied natural gas freight index that will eventually comprise several routes for the evolving LNG shipping market.
Golar LNG share offer
Nov 15 (LNGJ) - Golar LNG, the Norwegian fleet owner and project developer now operating out of Hamilton, Bermuda, is increasing the size of a previously announced share offering by 800,000 shares to 6.5 million shares. Golar also priced the offering at $23.50 per share. As part of the offering, the underwriters are selling 212,765 of the common shares to a member of the Golar board at the public offering price. The company granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 975,000 shares. The proceeds are expected to be just over $150 million and will partly fund the settlement of outstanding convertible bond borrowings. The share offer, scheduled to close on November 18, has Citigroup as the sole book-running manager, with brokers Clarksons Platou Securities, Danske Markets and Evercore ISI acting as joint lead managers.
