The Baupost Group has acquired a stake in struggling Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd., the Australia-based company with a planned liquefied natural gas export facility in Louisiana, Kallanish Energyreports.
The Massachusetts-based hedge fund directed by Seth Kierman has acquired 25.9 million shares of LNGL in recent weeks, according to filings released last Friday by the company.
The Baupost Group has also previously invested in very successful Cheniere Energy with its LNG facilities in Louisiana and Texas.
The LNGL investment comes after a Singapore-based private investment company dropped its proposed takeover of LNGL. That company, LNG9 PTE Ltd., withdrew its takeover bid after bridge financing had collapsed last month.
Last February, LNG9 said it intends to acquire 85.5 million ordinary shares of LNGL under the terms of an off-market takeover bid. The deal values LNGL at $75 million ($114 million Australian) and follows a January warning that LNGL needed additional cash to continue normal operations. LNG9 would take the company private.
LNGL’s assets include Magnolia LNG at Lake Charles, Louisiana. It would produce about 8.8 million tonnes per year of LNG. It is fully permitted and an EPC contract has been signed. Some of that LNG would be shipped to Vietnam to fuel a power plant there.
LNGL has also proposed an LNG liquefaction/export facility in Nova Scotia in eastern Canada.
