Eastern Pacific Shipping-led Cool Company (CoolCo) has boosted its LNG carrier fleet by 50% after completing a fast-track $270m fundraising exercise.
CoolCo raised $270m from a private placement which closed overnight comprising a new share issue and a share sale of some Golar LNG stock.
The company issued 13,678,462 new shares in CoolCo priced at NOK 130 per share to raise around $170m.
This cash was used to part-fund the purchase of four LNG carriers for $660m from EPS affiliate Quantum Crude Tankers.
The vessels have been named as the modern two-stroke duo, the 174,095-cbm Kool Firn (ex SCF Barents, built 2020) and Kool Orca (ex SCF Timmerman, built 2021), and two dual-fuel diesel-electric LNG carriers, the 170,200-cbm Kool Boreas (ex SCF Mitre, built 2015) and the Kool Baltic (ex SCF Melampus, built 2015).
The four ships, which were formerly controlled by Russian shipowner Sovcomflot, were bought by EPS’ interests from ING Bank in May 2022 for just over $700m in total.
The quartet have been sold to CoolCo at no profit to EPS’ interests at a price that is said to be “in line” with what EPS paid for the quartet in May.
The purchase boosts CoolCo's LNG carrier fleet to 12 ships.
A secondary share sale of 8,046,154 existing shares by Golar LNG raised approximately $100m.
As a result, EPS has now increased its shareholding in CoolCo to almost 50% from around 40%.
Golar’s stake in the company has reduced to 8.3% if CoolCo.
In a statement on the sale Golar chief executive Karl Staubo said: “The sale of CoolCo shares is driven by progress on FLNG [floating LNG] growth opportunities, where we expect to deploy the sale proceeds.
“We are delighted to see CoolCo realising the potential of the carrier business and delivering on its commitment to industry consolidation and dividend distributions to shareholders.”
Sources following the CoolCo offer said it attracted $0.5bn worth of demand from investors.
They said this is testament to the current strength of the market, CoolCo’s recently concluded top-dollar charter deals and good prospects for its upcoming open vessels.
The private placement took place through an accelerated bookbuilding process after close of markets on 2 November. Settlement of the offer shares is expected to take place on 7 November.
CoolCo also announced on Wednesday that it has an option to buy two under-construction LNG carrier resales from EPS at around $234m each.
This represents a premium of around $8m per vessel, but is still some way below current LNG newbuilding prices of around $250m.
CoolCo has until the end of the second quarter to exercise this option.
