Engie sells down stake in LNG tech firm
French energy firm Engie is selling a quarter of its stake in LNG tank design company GTT for €248mn ($304mn), the former said May 26. The sale, expected to complete May 28, leaves Engie with about 30% of GTT and a smaller board presence. Engie also issued a three-year exchangeable bond which could reduce its stake to about 20%. The bond comes at 20% premium to the share price.
Engie CEO Catherine MacGregor said the sale was "in line with Engie’s strategic plan towards simplifying the group and its investor proposition through exiting non-core activities. GTT is an innovative and high performing business, and as a major shareholder Engie has benefited from GTT’s continuing strong growth over the years.”
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GTT has also bought back 0.5% of its shares at the same price ($67/share), or €12.4mn, financed with GTT's available cash and carried out within the framework of the share buyback programme authorised a year ago.
GTT CEO Philippe Berterottiere thanked Engie for supporting "GTT's development for more than 50 years and has contributed to making it an undisputed leader in its field." He said that GTT had "many leading institutional investors who will allow us to pursue our independent model."
Engie, which as Gaz de France built LNG import terminals in France, sold its upstream and midstream stakes in LNG activities to fellow French Total in 2017 as it pared down its involvement in fossil fuels.