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Capital Product Partners to acquire 11 newbuild LNGCs in US$3.1Bn deal
The deal is for a mix of recently built and under construction 174,000-m3, two-stroke LNG carriers
As Capital Product Partners (CPLP) prepares for a rebranding to Captial New Energy Carriers, the company has undertaken a transaction that will see the company divest from its ’non-core’ container vessels and pick up nearly a dozen newbuild LNG carriers.
Underpinning the US$3.13Bn move is an umbrella agreement with other Evangelos Marinakis-linked companies, Capital Maritime & Trading Corp and Capital Group. To facilitate the 11-vessel acquisition, the future Capital New Energy Carriers outlined "significant funding support from Capital Maritime, including a no-fee, fully backstopped rights offering of US$500M and an unsecured, non-amortising seller’s credit of US$220M".
In its statement on the transaction, the company said the "11 latest generation two-stroke LNG carriers [are] to enter CPLP’s fleet from 2023 to 2027, which would make the partnership the largest, US publicly listed owner of two-stroke LNG carriers". Capital Product Partners said it intends to convert to a ’customary’ corporate governance structure when it becomes Capital New Energy Carriers, expected by the end of Q4 2024.
Capital New Energy Carriers will also hold the right of first refusal on two ammonia carriers and two 22,000-m3 liquefied CO2 carriers on order by Capital Maritime, and future two-stroke LNG vessels and charters from Capital Maritime.
To date, only one of the 11 vessels listed in the transaction has been delivered. Capital Gas Ship Management declared in early November that it had taken delivery of Amore Mio I, which is on a 2.8-year, time-charter contract with Qatar Energy Trading. The remaining 10 vessels, all named, are scheduled for delivery from January 2024 through March 2027. At the time, Capital Gas Ship Management said Amore Mio I was the eighth of 18 vessels to be delivered to the company through 2027, offering a brief run-down of the vessel’s characteristics.
"Propelled with MAN MEGA engines and equipped with the latest available technologies, including an air lubrication system, shaft generators and increased filling limits (above 99%)... the vessel represents the vanguard of the new generation of LNG carriers, setting an industry benchmark with its exceptionally low environmental impact. It achieves this by employing cutting-edge technologies designed to minimise methane slip and substantially reduce CO2 emissions," the company proclaimed.
Controlled by Greek shipping magnate Evangelos Marinakis and his son Miltiadis, Capital Product Partners currently owns a fleet of 23 ships including LNG carriers.
The company hinted at a major pivot to LNG in October 2023, with a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission that said the company is considering changing its business focus to concentrate on the LNG carrier market.
Also in October, the Capital Product Partners’ board of directors added an LNG specialist, former Inpex executive Atsunori Kozuki, to the company’s board. Mr Kozuki, a veteran of over three decades, previously served as principal project developer and general manager for Japan’s Inpex Corp, in charge of LNG business development and marketing.
In February, Capital Product Partners welcomed its seventh LNG carrier into the fleet. 174,000-m3 Asterix I was purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries. Six of the company’s LNG carriers have been chartered out to energy majors BP, Hartree, Cheniere and Engie.
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