Three more LNG carriers and an offering for Gaslog

The announcements came as the company completed the acquisition of the first trio of LNG carriers from BG Group affiliate MSL, which are to be chartered to MSL for 5.5, 6 and 6.5 years, with two of the ships holding three or five year extension options.

The same staggered charter lengths, to avoid simultaneous redelivery, have been agreed for the latest three 2007-built 145,000 cu m LNG carriers due to join the Gaslog fleet from MSL. Sister ships to the three already acquired, the new trio will cost around $468m and the deal is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.

GasLog has drawn down its $325.5m Citibank credit facility to finalise the first three ships, topped up with cash from an offering in January this year. Commitments for another $325.5m facility and bridging loan are in place for the second lot of vessels.

Adding to funds from the credit facility, the company plans to offer 4.25m shares and a a 30-day underwriter option of 637,500 shares to fund part of its purchases.

"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." commented Paul Wogan, ceo of GasLog.

"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 $3bn. 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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