Jun 2017 Financial News

NGC to retain control of TTNGL after APO

Jun 06, 2017

State-owned National Gas Company will maintain control of Phoenix Park Gas Processors Limited (PPGPL) at the completion of the additional offer of share in TTNGL on June 28, and assuming the offer is fully-subscribed, TTNGL said in a statement yesterday.

At the end of the offer, public investors will hold 100 per cent of Class B Shares of TTNGL, which would represent a 75 per cent effective ownership interest in PPGPL by individual and institutional investors of T&T. That amounts to 29.25 per cent effective ownership interest in PPGPL, and would mean while NGC’s effective ownership of PPGPL would be reduced from 63 per cent to 52 per cent, NGC would still maintain control of the board of PPGPL.

In the statement, NGC chairman Gerry Brooks endorsed the share offer, stating: “The figures tell the story. In 2016, TTNGL’s dividend yield was 7.14 per cent—the highest dividend yield on the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange. TTNGL recorded after tax earnings of $56.9 million in Q1 of 2017. Earnings per share for the period were $0.37, compared to $0.20 for 2016 - an improvement of 85.0 per cent. The Q1 after tax profits represents an 88.4 per cent improvement when compared to the same quarter in 2016. In Quarter 1 2016, a profit of $30.2 million was recorded.”

Brooks also noted that these significantly improved profits were driven by improved share of profit from the underlying asset of TTNGL, PPGPL.

He said that PPGPL was at “an advanced stage of implementation of its full portfolio of gas processing initiatives which were being pursued to diversify and enhance its earnings on a sustainable basis.”

This, coupled with a sensible cost and cash management philosophy, created a robust cash and balance sheet position which enabled TTNGL to maintain its dividend payout ratio.

At the last annual general meeting in April 2017, Brooks said that a decision was also made to pay dividends in either US dollars or TT dollars.

The Additional Public Offering (APO) of 40,248,000 Class B Shares in TTNGL opened yesterday at an offer price of $21 per share. The offer price was determined based on the closing market price of the TTNGL Class B shares on Friday 2nd June 2017, the last trading day prior to approval of the Prospectus, the statement said.

Source:
Trinidad Guardian
Tuesday June 6, 2017

http://www.guardian.co.tt/business/2017-06-06/ngc-retain-control-ttngl-after-apo