An investor group led by Blackstone has agreed to invest $3.1bn in a subsidiary that holds Mitsubishi's stake in the LNG Canada project, taking a 49.9% interest in that company in exchange. The buyers are taking their exposure through a holding company rather than through a direct share of the project itself. Mitsubishi's interest in LNG Canada stays where it is, inside the subsidiary.
The size of the stake matters for control: at 49.9%, the incoming investors stay just below half, and the remaining majority of the subsidiary sits with Mitsubishi. Mitsubishi therefore keeps majority ownership of the company that carries its position in the project, with the investor group alongside it as a large minority holder. Any return the group earns on its $3.1bn commitment will flow through its share of that vehicle rather than through project equity held in its own name.
The group is described as Blackstone-led, indicating that Blackstone heads a wider set of investors taking part in the deal. The two headline figures — the $3.1bn outlay and the 49.9% interest — attach to the subsidiary rather than to Mitsubishi's project position directly. On the face of the agreement, the transaction changes who holds a share of Mitsubishi's holding vehicle, not Mitsubishi's role within the project itself.
Transactions of this kind show how a project participant can bring outside money into its holding structure without selling the underlying interest or giving up the majority of the vehicle that holds it. Here the division falls just short of an even split, with Mitsubishi keeping just over half of the company that carries its LNG Canada interest. For the wider sector, the deal is an example of large investment groups taking sizable minority positions in LNG developments through intermediate companies, leaving the original participant's role in the project intact. For the project itself, the immediate change is confined to the ownership of one participant's holding company.
Source: Offshore Technology
