GasLog appears to be enjoying life as a private company, but Flex LNG is still seeing the benefits of a public listing.
Speaking at Marine Money’s New York Ship Finance Forum on Thursday, BlackRock managing director and GasLog board member James Berner said the LNG carrier owner was able to shed the costs of being a public company as well as the burden of investor demands.
“I think they wanted a deep-pocketed partner that would think long-term, which is us, and not have to explain the message to the markets on a quarterly basis,” he said.
“We’re not a spot shipping investor, we’re an infrastructure investor.”
BlackRock’s Global Energy & Power Infrastructure arm took GasLog private in February 2021 in a $5.80-per-share deal, the first of four moves in which LNG carrier owners left public equities markets over a period of two years.
Sources at the time told TradeWinds the move helped GasLog free up cash with more than $300m in debt maturing in the next year.
But Berner said the company did not feel it was being rewarded for having its fleet fixed on long-term charters, making it the lowest-risk LNG investment.
He said most of its investors were commodities-focused and the company did not have a large enough market capitalisation to attract bigger-name investors.
“I think for what GasLog’s management and its owner wanted, we were an ideal partner at the right time,” Berner said. “I don’t think they’ve regretted [the deal].”
In response, Flex LNG chief executive Oystein Kalleklev said the reason his outfit stays listed in New York and Oslo is discipline.
He said the John Fredriksen-backed company raised funds going public in Oslo in 2017 and 2018 before a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 2019.
“There is a lot of attention on the companies, so you really have to do the right things all the time,” Kalleklev said.
“You also need to make sure we keep the reputation intact in terms of not doing something stupid.
“I see the benefits of being public and of course, reporting takes a bit more time, but also every time you’re reporting you have to think about where we are in the world.”
