US-listed floating regasification specialist Excelerate Energy plans to switch to growing its business during 2024, its chief executive said.
Announcing its full-year results, company president and CEO Steven Kobos said: “In 2024, Excelerate Energy is committed to moving from strategy to action.”
Kobos, who did not go into specifics, said Excelerate remains focused on executing its growth strategy and optimising its business.
“Additionally, we will be using our balance sheet to return capital to shareholders through a new $50m share repurchase program while maintaining the flexibility to pursue our organic and inorganic growth opportunities,” he said.
Excelerate guided that for 2024 it expects its capital allocated and committed to specific investments currently in execution — or committed growth capex — to range between $70m to $80m.
“Beyond committed growth capex, the company expects to deploy significant growth capital through 2026 in support of its portfolio of inorganic and organic commercial opportunities,” the company said.
In a results presentation document, Excelerate identifies its strategic objectives as being to invest in its core regasification business and to grow the company’s fleet, including through selective acquisitions and the construction of new vessels.
Excelerate has one floating storage and regasification unit on order and has hinted about committing to a second.
Kobos described Excelerate as delivering “an exceptionally strong year of financial results in 2023”.
Excelerate saw its full-year net income jump to $126.8m up from $80m in 2022.
Revenues for 2023 plummeted by more than half, dropping to $1.2bn from $2.5bn the previous year.
Excelerate said the rise in net income for the year was mainly due to new charters in Finland and Germany, higher charter rates for its units in Brazil, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates, higher direct margin on gas sales and lower operating lease expense due to the acquisition of the 173,467-cbm FSRU Excelerate Sequoia (built 2020). But it said this was partially offset by the dry-docking expense for the 138,000-cbm FSRU Excellence (built 2005).
Fourth-quarter net income fell to $20m from $33.9m in the comparable period a year ago and was also down on the $46.5m recorded for the third quarter of 2023.
Quarterly revenue was also down at $240.1m in contrast to $455.1m in the same three months of 2022.
Excelerate said the fall in fourth-quarter net income decreased sequentially from the third quarter of 2023 primarily due to dry-docking expenses related to the FSRU Excellence, spot LNG cargo sales during the third quarter that did not reoccur in the following three months and planned vessel repairs and maintenance.
The company paid down $68.3m of debt during the fourth quarter and had $555.9m in cash and cash equivalents at the end of 2023.
Excelerate inked a 15-year LNG sales and purchase agreement (SPA) for LNG volumes with QatarEnergy in January 2024. These are expected to be used to supply cargoes to Bangladesh via Excelerate’s two FSRUs there under the SPA signed in November by the US regas provider with energy company Petrobangla.
“The consistent earnings contribution from our core regasification business and the solid performance of our contracts in Brazil highlighted the unique potential of our integrated strategy,” Kobos said.
Excelerate guided that it expects its adjusted Ebitda for 2024 to range between $315m and $335m.
