GasLog said that it has completed the acquisition of three LNG ships from Methane Services (MSL), a unit of BG Group. The company also agreed to acquire an additional three LNG carriers for $468 million from MSL and to charter those ships back to MSL for six-year initial terms on average.
“ The time charters back to MSL for the vessels will be staggered with terms of 5.5 years, 6 years and 6.5 years, similar to the vessels acquired from MSL today, so that the vessels do not redeliver at the same time. MSL will also have options to extend the term of the time charters for two of the ships for a period of either three or five years at its election ,” GasLog said in a statement.
“ The vessels to be acquired from MSL are 2007 built sister ships of the three vessels acquired today. GasLog supervised the construction of all six sister ships and has provided technical management for the ships since delivery ,” the company added.
Each LNG carrier to be acquired is modern, steam powered and has a capacity of 145,000 cubic meters.
Paul Wogan , CEO of GasLog , commented, “ We are very pleased to be doing a second transaction with BG Group to acquire three more on-the-water vessels in addition to the three vessel acquisition that we completed today. The transaction supports our strategy of consolidating the LNG carrier market by acquiring high quality assets. The ships will be chartered back to an affiliate of BG Group, thus increasing our backlog of contracted revenue to almost $3 billion. This strengthens our underlying business and provides a very strong base from which to continue to expand our fleet in the future. We expect the transaction to be accretive to our earnings and support increased dividend capacity. This transaction also further strengthens our long-standing relationship with BG Group. ”
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LNG World News Staff, April 11, 2014; Image: BG