Golar LNG Partners is to acquire the Golar Tundra floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) from the vessel’s current operator and disponent owner Golar LNG Limited.
The unit’s aggregate purchase price is $330m, minus around $230m of net lease obligations attached as part of the vessel’s bank financing, Golar LNG Partners said today. The partnership has already paid a 10% deposit to Golar LNG Limited.
The vessel acquisition is expected to close in March, before which Golar LNG Partners expects to enter into a new five-year $800m senior secured credit facility, comprising a $650m term loan and a $150m revolving credit facility.
The financing is intended to replace the partnership’s existing credit facilities, which are secured by seven vessels in the partnership’s fleet. The new credit facility would increase the average tenor of the partnership’s existing bank debt and will extend the maturity of around $380m of indebtedness from 2018 to 2021.
Golar LNG Partners says it intends to draw down $70m from the revolving credit facility to fund the remaining cash purchase price for the Golar Tundra.
Before the deal closes, Golar LNG Limited will agree to pay the partnership a daily fee plus operating expenses, totalling around $2.6m per month, for the right to use the FSRU from the date of deal’s closing until the Golar Tundra commences operations on its upcoming five-year timecharter. In return, Golar LNG Limited will be paid any hire income received from Golar Tundra during this period.
The Golar Tundra was delivered from Samsung Heavy Industries in November 2015 and is due to commence a five-year timecharter to West Africa Gas Limited (WAGL) in the second quarter this year. WAGL is developing an LNG import facility at the Port of Tema, Ghana, where the FSRU will be moored.
If the timecharter fails to commence over 12 months after the vessel sale, Golar LNG Partners has the right to require that Golar repurchase the shares of the vessel holding company Tundra Corp for the original purchase price.
“The Golar Tundra acquisition is expected to be an accretive transaction and is consistent with the partnership’s growth strategy, as it increases the diversity of the partnership’s fleet and contracted cash flow,” Golar LNG Partners commented.
