LNG

Dec 28 (LNGJ) - Chatterjee Fund Management (CFM), the private equity firm with offices in New York, has increased shareholdings in US LNG plant developer Tellurian Inc. and its proposed Driftwood LNG plant in Louisiana. A filing by Tellurian with the US Securities and Exchange Commission showed that Chatterjee raised its stake to 7.3 percent from 5.2 percent previously. Tellurian’s shares on the American list of the New York Stock Exchange rose by 7.55 percent after the announcement to $0.95 per share.

   The Chatterjee firm was founded in 1989 by Purnendu Chatterjee, a former investment adviser to the Quantum Group of Funds and a former partner to consultants McKinsey & Company Inc. Tellurian said that from late December CFM acquired 9.84 million shares and a Marshall Islands-registered Chatterjee fund LVS bought 3.17M shares so that CFM now owns 28.52M shares and LVS has 17.63M shares. “Therefore, CFM and Dr Chatterjee may be deemed to beneficially own 46.16M shares, which represents approximately 7.3 percent of outstanding shares,” Tellurian said.

Flex LNG, the Norwegian shipping company with a fleet of 13 modern vessels and several chartered to the largest US exporter, reported an 18 percent jump in first-quarter net income even amid spot freight market challenges at the end of the three months as the LNG trade abruptly shifted towards Europe from Asia.

Woodside Petroleum, the leading Western Australian LNG operator, has applied to list its shares in the form of American Depositary Shares (ADSs) on the New York Stock Exchange and plans to also list its shares on the London Stock Exchange in connection with the proposed merger with the petroleum business of commodities giant BHP Group.

Excelerate Energy, the US LNG specialist and a market leader in floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs), saw its shares increase by 11.8 percent in its trading debut after raising $384 million in the biggest US initial public offering since January 2022.

Shares in Excelerate closed on April 13 at $26.85 per share, giving the company a market value of about $2.8 billion based on the outstanding shares listed.

Excelerate shares are now quoted on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “EE”.

Excelerate sold 16 million shares at the top of a marketed range of $21 to $24 per share in its IPO.

The share sale came at a time when FLNG project interest is increasing worldwide as nations try to underpin their energy security with fast-track import projects.

The company has pioneered over a dozen import ventures worldwide and has also led the way in ship-to-ship LNG transfers.

Excelerate, based in The Woodlands in Houston in Texas, is part of a privately held US energy group founded by George Kaiser, owner of the Bank of Oklahoma. Kaiser will continue to control the majority of the shares.

Developer

Excelerate developed the Bahia Blanca GasPort, South America’s first LNG import terminal in 2008, and has also operated GNL Escobar, an LNG import terminal along the Paraná River of Argentina, since 2011.

The business spans the globe, with regional offices in eight countries and operations in the US, Brazil, Argentina, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The Excelerate prospectus for the IPO informed potential shareholders that it was the largest provider of regasified LNG in Argentina and Bangladesh and one of the largest providers of regasified LNG in Brazil and Pakistan, while also operating the biggest FSRU in Brazil.

The Excelerate company has additionally started FSRU-led import ventures in the US and the Middle East.

Excelerate had net income of $41 million and revenue of $889M in 2021 compared with $33M of profits and $431M in revenues in the previous year.

Flex LNG, the Norwegian shipping company with a fleet of 13 carriers, has given an overview of the current LNG market in March 2022 and the various arbitrage windows values and netbacks.

Höegh LNG Partners, the US affiliate of Höegh LNG Holdings now partnered with the infrastructure unit of US investment bank Morgan Stanley, has seen its shares plunge over 60 percent after the dividend was slashed.

Sasol, the South African petrochemicals and fuel company, has appointed investment banking advisers to sell its stakes in a power plant in Mozambique and a natural gas pipeline running from the southeast African future LNG exporter into South Africa.

Teekay LNG Partners, the US-listed tanker fleet owner and operator of about 50 LNG vessels, reported record net earnings after an eventful third quarter when it was briefly caught up in the Iran oil sanctions issue amid the delivery of more LNG newbuilds and ahead of the start-up by year-end of the Bahrain regasification project.

McDermott International, said it had received unsolicited approaches to sell all or part of its Lummus Technology business with a valuation exceeding $2.5 billion and analysts said this could be the starting point for a corporate overhaul.