Billionaire shipping magnate John Fredriksen’s Geveran Trading Co Limited has raised its stake in publicly traded LNG shipowner Flex LNG
Geveran Trading acquired 135,000 shares in Flex LNG Ltd at a purchase price of Nkr50.146 (US$4.438) per share on 10 March. Following the acquisition, Geveran owns almost 24.68M shares in Flex LNG, constituting 45.61% of the outstanding shares and votes in Flex LNG.
Geveran also control total return swap (TRS) agreements with exposure to 825,000 shares in Flex LNG Ltd.
Geveran Trading is indirectly controlled by trusts established by Mr Fredriksen for the benefit of his immediate family. One of the most influential people in shipping, Mr Fredriksen has vast shipholdings, including international tanker owner Frontline Ltd.
The next two largest investors in Bermuda-based Flex LNG after Geveran Trading are Norwegian investment fund Skagen Vekst Verdipapirfond and tanker and gas carrier owner BW Group Ltd.
Traded on the NYSE under the ticker symbol FLNG, Flex LNG had six LNG carriers in operation as of Q4 2019, with seven newbuilds under construction. Its existing fleet all have MAN Energy Solution’s ME-GI propulsion and four of the LNG carriers, Flex Enterprise, Flex Constellation, Flex Courageous and Flex Endeavour are fitted with partial reliquefaction technology.
Three of its newbuilds, Flex Artemis, Flex Resolute and Flex Freedom, due for delivery in 2020, will have ME-GI propulsion with full reliquefaction system technology. The combination of their slow-speed, two-stroke high-pressure ME-GI propulsion and reliquefaction systems will provide a boil-off rate of 0.035%. Those LNG carriers, each with a capacity of 173,400 m3, are under construction at South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering.
Four other 174,000-m3 newbuilds, Flex Aurora, Flex Amber, Flex Volunteer and Flex Vigilant, under construction at Hyundai Heavy Industries due for delivery over 2020 and 2021, will have WinGD X-DF propulsion.
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