Capital Product Partners hints at LNG pivot

A company filing on the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said the company is considering changing its business focus to concentrate on the LNG carrier market. For now, the effort remains exploratory and no decision has been made.

Controlled by Greek magnate Evangelos Marinakis and his son Miltiadis, Capital Product Partners currently owns a fleet of 23 ships including seven LNG carriers.

Both Mr Marinakises, senior and junior, are the only individuals named and are designated as the ’Reporting Persons’ in the SEC filing.

In the SEC filing, the company said, "the Reporting Persons intend to explore the possibility of proposing to the Issuer that it consider changing its business focus to concentrate on the liquefied natural gas carrier (LNGC) market. In connection with such possible change in business focus, the Reporting Persons intend to take exploratory steps, which may include but are not limited to, assessing LNGC market opportunities in relation to the Issuer’s existing business (including the possibility of acquiring certain LNGC vessels from affiliates of the Reporting Persons), assessing debt and equity funding sources for any LNGC vessel acquisitions and considering a change in the Issuer’s corporate form. As of the date of this amendment to the Reporting Persons’ Schedule 13D, the Reporting Persons have not made any decision with respect to such potential proposal and the Reporting Persons may or may not ultimately pursue such potential proposal."

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.

An affiliate, Capital Gas, has nine LNG carriers on order.

Last week, 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.  

And in July 2023, a related Evangelos Marinakis-controlled business entity, Capital Maritime, placed an order for two 22,000-m³ liquefied CO2 carriers with HD Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, the largest of that vessel type ordered to date.