InfraVia Capital Partners-backed small-scale LNG company Molgas Energy is buying a 45% stake in Dutch bunker provider Titan Clean Fuels.
Titan said today it closed a funding round for a 45% equity stake with further follow-on rights from European downstream LNG and renewable gas distributor Molgas.
“The investment in Titan aims to accelerate the global uptake of alternative fuels like LBM [liquefied bio-methane also known as bio-LNG] in the maritime sector and complements Molgas’ build-out of alternative fuels supply across Europe and beyond,” the Dutch company said.
Titan chief executive and co-founder Niels den Nijs said: “We have been considering a growth partner for some time and believe we have found the perfect partner in InfraVia and Molgas. Titan will retain independence while benefiting from the complementary service offering of Molgas.
“Legislation and public scrutiny are stimulating the demand for low and zero-emissions fuels with growing momentum. The new capital will allow us to accelerate our growth plans and focus all our efforts on the maritime sector exactly at the time of fast-growing market need.”
Molgas executive chairman Fernando Sarasola described Titan as “the leading independent company in the marine bunkering field”.
He said: “Our portfolio of complementary offers will establish the group as the go-to partner for energy transition LNG and alternative fuels to off-grid industrials, trucking and maritime businesses across Europe.”
Titan, which supplies fuels globally and is part of the consortium building the world’s largest LBM plant in the Port of Amsterdam, launched a process to seek partners several months ago as it moved to grow its business and realise some of its ambitions.
Talk initially reverberated around the market that the company was in talks with a major energy trader that was looking to build out its own bunkering business. But these appear not to have progressed.
InfraVia, which is focused on infrastructure and technology investments, has been hoovering up companies working in the small-scale LNG sector.
In 2020, the company bought small-scale LNG bunkering and trucking provider Molgas Energy Holding, which was active in Spain, France and Portugal.
A year later, Molgas bought out Nordic’s small-scale LNG player Gasnor from Shell.
InfraVia partner Athanasios Zoulovits said: “The critical need for LNG as a transition fuel for the industrial, mobility and maritime sectors and its efficient pathway to further decarbonisation through LBM and e-LNG is becoming increasingly clear.”
He said Molgas has the specialist expertise and scale to make the group “a leader in the high-growth maritime space. As other alternative fuels become commercially viable, Titan also has the specialist experience and pipeline to bring those fuels to the maritime space at scale.”
Titan was set up in 2011 as Titan LNG by former Cargill trader den Nijs and a business partner.
Today, it operates a fleet of seven LNGBVs. These comprise the company’s own two 1,500-cbm, barge-based FlexFuelers along with the 12,000-cbm Titan Unikum (ex-Seapeak Unikum) and TitanVision (ex-Seapeak Vision, both built 2011), which it bought at the start of this year.
In addition, it controls three chartered-in vessels: the 5,000-cbm Green Zeebrugge (ex-Engie Zeebrugge, built 2017), the 6,000-cbm Optimus (built 2021) and the recently delivered 8,200-cbm newbuilding Alice Cosulich.
