Shareholders back Vasant sale
Swan Energy has received the green light from shareholders to sell its 180,000 cubic metre capacity FSRU Vasant to Turkey's state-owned Botas for $399m.
"A special resolution for the sale was passed with the necessary majority," says a company source. "After the month-long e-voting, 93.02% of the votes favoured the sale."
On August 16 (2024), Swan announced it would kick off e-voting on the FSRU sale special resolution. Of the 223,262,735 votes polled for the special resolution, 207,680,695 votes favoured the sale, while 15,582,040 were against it.
These votes corresponded to 313,456,886 shares in the company. E-voting began through the National Securities Depository on August 17 (2024) and ended on September 16 (2024).
Swan's board approved the sale at its August 14 (2024) meeting. Vasant has been in Turkey for almost two years after Swan subsidiary Triumph Offshore executed a term sheet on December 31 (2022) to hire out Vasant at $250,000/day.
"Botas has made a part payment of Rs824.81cr ($98m) to Triumph," adds our source. Swan must now sign definitive documents or a Norwegian Sale Form (NSF), complete closing conditions, and secure other regulatory approvals.
An NSF is the Norwegian Shipbrokers' Association's widely used standard agreement for selling and purchasing second-hand ships. Hyundai-built Vasant's owner Triumph is now a 100% Swan subsidiary after joint venture partner Indian Farmers Fertilisers Cooperative (IFFCO) exited Triumph in June 2024.
Swan initially meant to deploy Vasant at its FSRU-based LNG project at Jafrabad in Gujarat. But as soon as Triumph took delivery of Vasant in September 2020, it hired it out, first to Hong Kong-based CNTIC VPower Energy, then to Ghana-based Tema LNG, and finally to Botas.