LNG

GasLog, the LNG shipping company with a fleet of 34 carriers in the Group, benefited from the vibrant spot charter market during the third quarter to increase revenues and profits and signed new time charter agreements.

GasLog LNG Ltd., the operator with a fleet 35 LNG carriers under its control and with four others under construction, reported a rise in revenues but a decline in first-quarter profits to $71.05 million compared with $84.24M in the prior-year quarter.

“The decrease in profit is mainly attributable to the decrease in profit from operations, which is mainly affected by an impairment loss,” said the company.

GasLog posted an increase in quarterly revenues to $213.72M compared with 205.32M in the same three months of 2021.

“The increase in revenues is mainly attributable to an increase from the deliveries of wholly-owned GasLog vessels. This increase was partially offset by decreased revenues mainly from GasLog Partners’ vessels operating in the spot market in the first quarter of 2022,” explained the Piraeus, Greece-based company.

Among the GasLog fleet of 39 LNG ships, 19 are owned by GasLog, five have been sold and leased back by GasLog under long-term and of the remaining 15 LNG carriers, 14 are owned by the company’s subsidiary, GasLog Partners, and one has been sold and leased back by GasLog Partners.

GasLog completed a merger in June 2021 with BlackRock’s Global Energy and Power Infrastructure (GEPIF) fund and de-listed its common shares from the New York Stock Exchange.

Ownership structure

GasLog’s ownership structure has three main shareholders in both companies, parent GasLog Ltd and subsidiary GasLog Partners LP.

They are the Greek Livanos family with 55 percent, the Monaco-based Onassis Foundation with 12 percent and BlackRock’s GEPIF, holder of 45 percent of the equity.

As of the end of March 2022, GasLog had $3.5 billion of debts outstanding under its credit facilities and bond agreements, of which $234.9M is repayable within one year.

Among first-quarter highlights, the Greek floating LNG terminal project including GasLog and led by the company Gastrade SA to deploy two Floating Storage and Regasification Units (FSRUs) off Greece, was making progress after a final investment decision.

Alexandroupolis

“GasLog, through its subsidiary GAS-fifteen Ltd., issued a final notice to proceed to Keppel Shipyard (Singapore) to convert the ‘GasLog Chelsea’, a 153,600 cubic metres tri-fuel, diesel-electric propulsion (TFDE) LNG carrier built in 2010, into an FSRU in connection with the FID taken by Gastrade for the construction of a regasification terminal in Alexandroupolis,” explained the company.

GasLog has entered into an agreement for the sale of the “GasLog Chelsea” to Gastrade for $265.1M, payable in instalments following its conversion to an FSRU expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2023.

GasLog noted that it also completed a sale and lease-back deal on the “GasLog Skagen”, a 155,000 cubic metres capacity TFDE LNG carrier built in 2013, with a wholly owned subsidiary of China Development Bank Leasing (CDBL).

This released $21.5M of incremental net liquidity to the Group. The vessel was sold and leased back under a charter with CDBL for a period of five years with no repurchase option or obligation.

“The vessel remains on its charter with Chevron Asia Pacific Shipping,” said GasLog.

Among new charter agreements in the first quarter, GasLog extended the time charter of the “GasLog Salem” with a wholly owned subsidiary of commodities firm Gunvor for an additional 12 months.

The company also signed a new one-year time charter party agreement for the “GasLog Singapore” with Singapore LNG Corp.

In another deal, subsidiary GasLog Partners LP signed a new multi-month time charter agreement for the “GasLog Sydney” with Spain-based utility Naturgy Energy.

GasLog Ltd, the Greek LNG shipping company, has announced executive changes at the top with the decision of Chief Executive Paul Wogan to retire from his position on March 9, 2022.

“He will remain, in an advisory role until June 30, 2022 to ensure a smooth transition,” said GasLog.

The GasLog board named Paolo Enoizi, currently Chief Operating Officer of GasLog Ltd and CEO of US affiliate GasLog Partners LP. As the new CEO of GasLog Ltd, effective March 10, 2022.

GasLog is currently expanding its fleet and has ordered four newbuild 174,000 cubic metres capacity vessels for delivery in 2024 and 2025.

GasLog Ltd ordered the vessels from South Korea shipyard Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering.

The four newbuilds will have latest generation M-type Electronically Controlled, Gas Injection (MEGI) propulsion system.

GasLog completed a merger in June 2021 with BlackRock’s Global Energy and Power Infrastructure division and de-listed its common shares from the New York Stock Exchange.

Structure

GasLog’s ownership structure has three main shareholders in both companies, parent GasLog Ltd and subsidiary GasLog Partners LP.

They are the Greek Livanos family with 55 percent, the Monaco-based Onassis Foundation with 12 percent and BlackRock’s Global Energy and Power infrastructure fund (GEPIF), holder of 45 percent of the equity.

GasLog Ltd, whose Chairman remains Peter G. Livanos, has an LNG fleet comprising 20 vessels, 12 dual-fuel, seven tri-fuel, diesel electric (TFDE) and one steam-turbine carrier.

Subsidiary GasLog Partners LP owns 15 LNG carriers, including 10 tri-fuel-diesel-electric (TFDE) ships and five steam-turbine vessels.

The GasLog business has undergone a substantial overhaul in recent years to improve efficiency and to reduce overheads.

This followed its decision in November 2019 to move its headquarters from Monaco to the Greek port of Piraeus, home of its operational platform.

GasLog Ltd, which controls an LNG carrier fleet of 35 vessels, has made its first major foray into the debt securities market to lower interest on financing since the merger in mid-2021 with a unit of giant US investment US fund BlackRock.

GasLog Ltd entered into a Note Purchase Agreement with the US investment funds, the Carlyle Group and EIG Global Energy Partners, for a $325 million credit facility.

The Notes carry an interest rate of 7.75 percent and are due in 2029.

Carlyle’s global credit platform made the investment with capital primarily from its Infrastructure Credit Fund.

EIG extended its funding through various funds and accounts in the investment group’s direct lending division.

“GasLog anticipates drawing down the Facility in March 2022. The proceeds of the facility will be used to refinance the company’s 8.875 percent Senior Notes due in March 2022,” said GasLog.

“Any remaining proceeds may be used to pay transaction costs and expenses incurred in connection with the private placement and/or general corporate purposes,” added the company, whose corporate headquarters are in Hamilton, Bermuda and operational base is in the Greek port of Piraeus.

GasLog completed a merger in June 2021 with BlackRock’s Global Energy and Power Infrastructure division and de-listed its common shares from the New York Stock Exchange.

The GasLog’s ownership structure has three main shareholders in parent GasLog Ltd and subsidiary GasLog Partners LP.

The Greek Livanos family owns 55 percent, the Monaco-based Onassis Foundation holds 12 percent and BlackRock Global Energy and Power infrastructure fund (GEPIF) owns 45 percent.

The GasLog Ltd, whose Chairman remains Peter G. Livanos, has an LNG fleet comprising 20 vessels, 12 dual-fuel, seven tri-fuel, diesel electric (TFDE) and one steam-turbine carrier.

GasLog Ltd subsidiary, GasLog Partners LP and whose Chief Executive since August 2021 has been Paolo Enoizi, owns 15 LNG carriers, including 10 TFDE ships and five steam-turbine vessels.

The contracted revenue backlog at the end of June 2021 for the Partnership’s fleet was more than $660M and the average age of the vessels was nine years.

GasLog Ltd, the Greek-based LNG shipping fleet owner with 35 vessels currently operating or on order, issued quarterly earnings, an event overshadowed by its agreed merger deal on the same day with a unit of US fund giant BlackRock.

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.