Norway’s Crown LNG and Catcha Investment have completed their previously announced agreement for a business combination that resulted in Crown becoming a US publicly listed company.
The two firms announced the deal in August last year, saying they expect to close the transaction in the fourth quarter of 2023.
According to a joint statement issued on Tuesday, the transaction was unanimously approved by Catcha’s board of directors and was approved at an extraordinary general meeting of Catcha shareholders on June 12, 2024.
Moreover, the combined entity will be renamed Crown LNG Holdings Limited and, starting on July 9, 2024, the Class A ordinary shares and warrants of PubCo will trade on the Nasdaq under the new ticker symbols “CGBS” and “CGBSW,” respectively.
Crown’s senior management team will continue to lead the now combined company, including Swapan Kataria (chief executive officer) and Jorn S. Husemoen (chief financial officer).
Also, Gunnar Knutsen will continue to serve as the president of Crown LNG AS, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Crown LNG Holdings Limited, responsible for technology selection and project execution.
PubCo’s board of directors will be comprised of Swapan Kataria, Jørn S. Husemoen, Ellen Hanetho, Gry Osnes, and Andrew Judson.
“We are incredibly proud to complete this transaction and become a US listed public company,” Kataria said.
“This transformative step enables the next phase of growth at Crown, and the capital raised in this transaction will further strengthen our ability to execute on our diversified project pipeline in India, the UK, Vietnam, Canada, and other global markets,” he said.
FIDs on two projects
Crown confirmed it is advancing development of two projects toward final investment decision – Kakinada, on the east coast of India, and Grangemouth, in Scotland.
The Grangemouth FSRU project will have a capacity of 5 mpta and will cost about $533 million.
It will supply a natural gas-fired power plant.
The Grangemouth facility has secured support from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, as well as access to existing gas and power infrastructure in partnership with GBTron, Kataria said during an investor conference call in August last year.
“We expect FID in Q3 of 2024 and have invested approximately $4.6 million in the project already,” he said at the time.
As per the Kakinada project in India, this terminal will utilize GBS facilities and will have a capacity of 7.2 mtpa.
This project will cost about $1 billion.
Moreover, the Kakinada project’s GBS terminal has already received a license to operate for 365 days given its more robust characteristics and foul weather capabilities, Kataria said.
“Crown LNG expects FID on the Kakinada project in Q3 of 2025, with invested capital of over $45 million to date in the project,” he said.
Besides these projects, Crown plans to develop LNG projects in Vung Tau, Vietnam and Newfoundland, Canada.
The FSRU-based project in Vietnam would have a capacity of 10 mtpa and cost about $1.2-1.3 billion, while the liquefaction project in Canada would have a capacity of 9 mtpa and cost $8-9 billion, according to Crown.