John Fredriksen eyes full control of Avance Gas

Norwegian-born Cypriot oil tanker and shipping billionaire businessman John Fredriksen is looking to gain full control over Bermuda-based liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) transportation company Avance Gas Holding.

On 4 October, Frederiksen’s Hemen Holding Limited submitted a mandatory offer to acquire all issued shares in Avance Gas it does not already own against a cash consideration of NOK 43.00 ($5.01) per share.

Avance Gas’ shareholders have been asked to assess the offer.

As informed, the offer price will be settled through a cash payment from the offeror to the accepting shareholders. The price is equal
to the highest price paid by the offeror for the shares during the six months’ period prior to making the offer and values the
total share capital of the company at a market capitalization of approximately NOK 3.329 billion.

“We view the offer price as fair from a short-term financial point of view. The offer represents a liquidity event for shareholders looking to monetize their position in the company,” Avance Gas said.

“On the other hand, we view the company, with a modern fleet of thirteen VLGCs, a newbuilding program of six dual-fuel 91,000 cbm VLGCs scheduled to be delivered during the period Q4 2021 to 2H 2023, sustainability-linked financing in place for the two first newbuildings scheduled to be delivered in Q4 2021 and Q1 2022, a strong balance sheet, and a well performing management team, as well positioned to generate value to shareholders going forward on a stand-alone basis,” the company added.

On 20 August 2021, Hemen announced that it had acquired a total of 127,207 shares, that it following the acquisition held 25,383,231 shares representing 32.78% of the shares and votes in the company.

In addition, Frontline Ltd, a company in which Hemen holds approximately 40% of the shares, held a total of 442,384 shares, resulting in an aggregate holding of 25,825,615 shares representing 33.35% of the shares and votes in Avance Gas.

Hemen therefore also announced that it as a result of the acquisition had triggered an obligation to make a mandatory offer pursuant to section 6-1 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act and intended to put forward a mandatory offer to acquire all shares not already held by it within the 4 weeks deadline.