Latest News

Sources say that Woodside's offer for LNG developer Tellurian is unlikely to be matched.

Woodside Energy

agreed last month

People involved in the transaction said that it is unlikely that a competitor bidder will be willing to match the $1.2 billion price tag, including the debt, to purchase Tellurian. The developer of an approved U.S. LNG project.

The Driftwood project is in trouble and taking it over would be a good idea

Woodside's Ambition

People said that Tellurian, an Australian company, had no competition to become the largest independent LNG producer in the world, despite its eight-year effort to attract investors to the project, for which it claimed to have spent $1.5 billion.

Woodside’s offer included a bridge loan up to $230m that will allow construction of the 27,6 million ton facility per year in Louisiana to continue.

Tellurian's spokesperson confirmed that the LNG developer had not scheduled a vote by shareholders on the Woodside transaction, which is expected to close in late 2018. The board of directors has approved the deal and agreed not to solicit any other bids. It will also pay a termination fee of $36 million if a higher offer is made.

The deal includes a $900 million cash payment for outstanding Tellurian common shares at $1 each, Woodside claimed that this represented a premium of more than 75% over Tellurian’s previous closing price.

Chatterjee Management Company (which owns 5.3% in Tellurian) is unhappy with the price of the deal, but will support it if a better one comes along.

Purnendu chatterjee, Chairman of the Board, said: "If there's a better deal for the company, then they will come and show up before the deal is put in front of the shareholders."

Chaterjee Management purchased most of its Tellurian shares between December 13 and December 22 when the share price ranged between 65 cents and 84cents.

Magnetar Capital Partners, a hedge fund, announced this week that it purchased 46.1 million Tellurian shares in July at a weighted-average price between 91 and 94 cents each.

The company that holds a stake of 5.16% in Tellurian did not make any comments on the purchases. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company described the stock purchase in the days following Woodside’s bid as a way to profit from the difference between the share price of the Tellurian shares and Woodside’s $1 offer.

Tellurian's shares traded for less than 91 cents last Thursday.

Charif Souki, the former Tellurian chairman, floated the idea of putting together a bid for the company in this year after his departure from the company at the end 2023. He has not responded to any requests for comment, nor did he respond through his lawyer or the company.

Two people who were familiar with the process said that before Woodside's offer there was no serious interest in investing in Driftwood or Tellurian.

"We couldn't get anyone to commit that they would take Driftwood volumes. One person said that the Heads of Agreement ( HOA ) with Aethon was the closest thing we could have gotten. Aethon, a natural-gas producer, acquired Tellurian's drilling assets.

The person stated that "if they had been able to get a few commercial agreements, it would have convinced the people the project could actually be built."

Source: Tellurian has reduced its liquefaction fee to $2.25 per million British Thermal Units, which is the average processing fee in the market, but customers want even lower fees.

(source: Reuters)