New LNG shipping firm CoolCo, formed by Tor Olav Troim-led Golar LNG and Idan Ofer’s Eastern Pacific Shipping, has completed the purchase of the first out of eight vessels from Golar.
CoolCo finalized the transaction on March 3. The firm said in a statement it bought all of the shares in Golar’s subsidiary, Golar Hull M2022 Corp., which is the owner of the 2014-built, 160,000-cbm TFDE LNG tanker, Golar Crystal.
According to CoolCo, the purchase price was financed by a drawing under CoolCo’s senior secured bank facility and a cash payment to Golar.
The deal also includes the subscription by Golar of 1,562,500 new common shares of $1.00 par value in CoolCo at a subscription price of $10.00.
CoolCo said it had issued these shares on March 3. After the issuance, there are now 29,072,500 shares in issue in CoolCo.
Besides this LNG carrier, CoolCo will buy seven more vessels from Golar as part of the deal between Golar and EPS revealed in December last year.
The TFDE vessels, built between 2013 and 2015, have each a capacity of about 160,000 cbm.
CoolCo financed the acquisition by concluding a $570 million senior secured bank facility and the raising of $275 million in gross proceeds in a recent private placement of new shares.
The firm added that it expects to complete the transfers of title to the shares in the remaining seven vessel subsidiaries of Golar in “the short term”.