Excelerate raises more cash to fund acquisition of NFE’s Jamaica business

Excelerate first launched an underwritten public offering of $150 million of shares of its Class A common stock, and then increased the size of the offering to $184.3 million of shares.

Additionally, Excelerate granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,043,478 shares of its Class A common stock .

The firm said in a statement on May 1 that the underwriters have fully exercised their option to purchase the additional shares at the public offering price per share of $26.50, less the underwriting discounts and commissions.

This resulted in an estimated additional net proceeds of $26.4 million to Excelerate before deducting offering expenses, the firm said.

The FSRU player said it intends to use the net proceeds from this offering, together with the $800 million offering of unsecured senior notes due 2030 and cash on hand, to fund the previously announced pending acquisition of New Fortress Energy’s business in Jamaica for $1.055 billion.

In March, Excelerate entered into a definitive agreement with compatriot LNG player NFE to acquire the latter’s business in Jamaica.

The transaction includes the sale of NFE’s LNG import terminal in Montego Bay, offshore floating storage and regasification terminal in Old Harbour, and 150 MW combined heat and power plant in Clarendon, along with the associated infrastructure.

Excelerate operates ten FSRUs, one of the world’s largest fleets of such vessels, and these units are located worldwide.

Some FSRUs are located in Finland, Brazil, Dubai, Pakistan, while one FSRU will soon start serving the second FSRU-based LNG import terminal in Germany’s Wilhelmshaven.

In addition to these 10 FSRUs, Excelerate also ordered one 174,000-cbm FSRU at South Korea’s HD Hyundai Heavy Industries in 2022.

The firm also aims to buy an LNG carrier this year as part of its expansion plans.