NextDecade shares fall 23% as LNG project funding disappoints investors
July 13 (Reuters) - NextDecade Corp shares fell 23% on Thursday on investor worries over the terms of $18.4 billion financing the U.S. liquefied natural gas developer obtained to go ahead with the long-delayed Phase 1 of Rio Grande LNG export facility.
The company had on late Wednesday said it was one of the largest greenfield energy project financings in the history of the United States, but analysts said it may have given up more equity than expected to its financial partners.
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NextDecade said its financial partners and TotalEnergies combined will hold stake that could fetch them at least 79.2% of the cash flow generated from Phase 1 of the project.
TD Cowen said this was 20% higher than its expectations. It also said the lump-sum turnkey engineering, procurement and construction contracts of $12 billion were lower than its forecast of $12.5 billion.
"Investors are looking at the huge portion of cash flow that the new project level investors get relative to the equity holders and don't love that," said Sean Morgan, an analyst at Evercore.
NextDecade is expected to produce 27 million tonnes of LNG a year from the facility. Its shares have gained 32% so far this year, including session losses. (Reporting by Arshreet Singh; Editing by Shweta Agarwal)