Liquefied natural gas exporters in the United States have been taking advantage of strong investor interest to carry out refinancings in the bond market, extending their debt maturity profiles.
Cheniere Energy, the largest operator of LNG terminals in the US, has priced a US$1 billion offering of ten-year senior notes to refinance US$1.5 billion in outstanding aggregate principal amount of Cheniere Corpus Christi Holdings‘ senior secured notes due 2025.
The Cheniere 2034 notes pay a 5.65% coupon, and were issued at 99.789% of par. The closing of the offering is expected on March 19.
Cheniere owns the Sabine Pass export plant and the Corpus Christi facility in Texas, and is in the midst of major expansion projects. The company said in a recent presentation its Stage 3 brownfield expansion project with a capacity of over 10 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) is now 51% complete.
With access to abundant, low-cost natural gas and a proposed and fully permitted expansion project, the Corpus Christi liquefaction facility provides Cheniere potential for the next stage of growth.
The facility is located in Corpus Christi Bay in San Patricio County, Texas, where energy infrastructure and estuaries co-exist. It currently has three fully operational liquefaction units. All three trains were completed ahead of schedule and within budget, and each train is designed to produce 5 mtpa of LNG.
The facility’s three containment tanks each capable of storing 160,000 cubic metres of LNG . The facility’s two berths have the capacity to receive the world’s largest LNG carrier, the Q-Max, which has a cargo capacity of 266,000 cubic metres.
Also recently tapping the capital markets was Nasdaq-listed New Fortress Energy, which priced a US$750 million private offering of five-year senior secured notes, up from US$500 million originally. The notes pay 8.75% per annum.
The company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to repay a portion of its outstanding debts, including repurchasing up to US$375 million of its existing senior secured notes due 2025, via a tender offer announced on March 5.
