LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - New Fortress Energy has agreed to buy Hygo Energy Transition and Golar LNG to expand in South America and gain liquefied natural gas shipping in deals with a combined value of $5bn (£3.7bn).
The energy infrastructure group will exchange 31.4m of its own class A shares and $580m in cash for the shares of Hygo, which is a 50-50 joint venture between Golar and US private equity firm Stonepeak Infrastructure. The deal gives Hygo a $3.1bn enterprise value.

The US company said it would also buy Golar in a transaction valuing Golar's equity at about $251m in cash or $1.9bn including debt.

New Fortress said the acquisitions would make it the biggest gas-to-power company in Brazil and add 2700MW of power generation in operation or development and top quality liquefied natural gas shipping. It struck the deal for Hygo less than four months after Hygo's former boss was named in a corruption investigation in Brazil. Eduardo Antonello resigned as CEO but has not been charged.

"With a strong presence in Brazil and a world-class LNG shipping business, Hygo and GMLP are excellent additions to our efforts to accelerate the world's energy transition," Wes Edens, chief executive of New Fortress, said. "The addition of Hygo will quickly expand our footprint in South America with three gas-to-power projects in Brazil's large and fast-growing market. With GMLP, we gain LNG ships and world-class operators that are an ideal fit to support our existing terminals and robust pipeline."

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