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Venture Global announced on Tuesday that it has closed its inaugural offering of 3 million shares of 9.00 percent series A fixed-rate reset cumulative redeemable perpetual preferred stock, with a $1,000 liquidation preference per share.
The series A preferred shares have no maturity date and may only be redeemed by Venture Global after September 30, 2029 or in certain limited circumstances prior thereto.
Also, the shares are not convertible into nor exchangeable for any other securities of Venture Global and rank senior to Venture Global’s existing common stock, and junior to Venture Global’s indebtedness.
Venture Global said it intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes.
Earlier this year, Venture Global closed its $1.5 billion offering of senior secured notes.
In November last year, Venture Global closed its $1 billion offering of senior secured notes.
The firm said at the time that this offering brings Venture Global’s total year-to-date high-yield debt raised to $9.5 billion, which marks the “largest US dollar high yield issuance by volume in a single year since 2015.”
LNG export plants
Venture Global currently only produces LNG at its 10 mtpa Calcasieu Pass LNG export terminal in Louisiana, but the firm is also working to start production at its Plaquemines LNG export plant in Louisiana.
Calcasieu Pass produced its first LNG on January 19, 2022, and the first commissioning cargo left the facility on March 1.
However, Venture Global has not yet declared the start of commercial operations.
Long-term customers of the Calcasieu pass facility include Shell, BP, Edison, Repsol, Galp, and PGNiG, now part of Orlen.
Energy giants Shell and BP and other firms are in a dispute with Venture Global over the launch of commercial operations at the facility.
Besides Calcasieu Pass, Venture Global is building its Plaquemines LNG export plant.
Venture Global recently received approval from the US FERC to start reverse cooldown activities at its Plaquemines LNG export plant in Louisiana, as part of the terminal’s commissioning phase.
The company took a final investment decision in May 2022 on the first phase of the Plaquemines project with a capacity of 13.3 mtpa and the related pipeline. It also secured $13.2 billion in project financing.
In March last year, the company sanctioned the second phase of the Plaquemines LNG export plant in Louisiana and also secured $7.8 billion in project financing.
The full project, including the second stage, will have a capacity of 20 mtpa coming from 36 modular units, configured in 18 blocks.
In addition to Calcasieu Pass and Plaquemines, in June, the US FERC gave the green light to Venture Global’s proposed CP2 LNG project in Louisiana.
The CP2 LNG plant will be located next to Venture Global’s existing Calcasieu Pass liquefaction plant in Louisiana, which is still in the commissioning phase.
It will have 18 liquefaction blocks, each with a capacity of about 1.1 mtpa of LNG, and also four 200,000-cbm full containment LNG storage tanks.
Besides the FERC approval, CP2 LNG also needs non-FTA export authorization from the US Department of Energy.