German energy giant RWE to sell stake in LNG company Excelerate Energy

German energy giant RWE AG yesterday said that it will sell its 50-per cent stake in US liquefied natural gas (LNG) company Excelerate Energy to its co-owner, George B Kaiser, subject to approval by the RWE board.

The Essen-based company did not disclose the financial terms of the deal, but had acquired the stake in 2008 for about $500 million.

''Excelerate Energy has developed to become a very successful global provider of infrastructure based on special LNG ships with on-board regasification. This business is further developing into a pure LNG infrastructure business and is therefore an ever less integral part of the core activities of RWE,'' said Stefan Judisch, CEO of RWE Supply & Trading.

''We will continue to build up RWE's LNG trading business further. Over the last few years the global LNG market has developed significantly and therefore the possession of LNG assets is no longer a requirement for success in the trading business,'' he added.

Texas-based Excelerate Energy is a developer of LNG transportation and regasification infrastructure, a provider of LNG storage and regasification services and an importer of LNG.