Tor Olav Troim has bagged a premium for one-time spin-off candidate Hygo Energy Transition.
After the blockbuster $5.3bn sale of Hygo and Golar LNG Partners to New Fortress Energy was disclosed on Wednesday, Fearnleys Securities said the total equity value in the deal comes in at $2.2bn.
This is more than Hygo was expected to be net through a planned initial public offering.
"For [Golar LNG] the [Hygo] price is above the IPO range of $1.8 to $2.1bn," the bank's head of research Espen Landmark Fjermestad wrote.
"Therefore, the transaction is also accretive for [Golar LNG], as we doubt a much better IPO price could have been achieved within the next 3 to 6 months."
Hygo, once known as Golar Power, was expected to go public in September, capping off nearly two years of efforts by Troim to spin off Golar's LNG carrier fleet.
But its debut on New York's Nasdaq was postponed after it emerged that Hygo chief executive Eduardo Antonello was being investigated in the Operation Car Wash probe into corruption at Brazil's state-controlled oil company, Petrobras.
Antonello was suspected of paying Petrobras authorities $40m in bribes to secure contracts for Seadrill in 2015.
Antonello eventually took leave, then stepped down and was replaced by Paul Hanrahan.
In November, the company reiterated its commitment to finishing the Hygo spin-off, with Troim saying an IPO was "the primary route to achieve this".
New Fortress will pay $580m in cash and issue 31.4m in shares to acquire all outstanding Hygo shares.
Golar LNG will receive 18.6m shares and $50m in cash, while one-time Hygo joint venture partner Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners will net 12.7m shares and $530m.
On the news, B Riley FBR analyst Liam Burke raised the target price for Golar LNG to $20.50 from $13, reiterating its "buy" rating.
Burke included Golar LNG's assets, but not the restart of the FLNG Gimi project.
He valued Golar LNG's share of Hygo and Golar LNG Partners at $11 per share, plus the remaining assets at $9.50.
"The sale of two key assets provides much more clarity to the [Golar LNG] valuation and provides the financial flexibility to develop high-return floating LNG projects," Burke wrote.
In early trading on Wednesday, New Fortress shares were up $2.68, to $61.13.
Golar LNG shares were up $1.57, to $13.81, and Golar LNG Partners shares rose $0.58, to $3.37.
