Toshiba pushes back US LNG business sale

Japanese conglomerate Toshiba Corporation has pushed back the transfer of outstanding shares of its US LNG business Toshiba America LNG Corporation to China’s ENN Ecological Holdings.

Toshiba said on Monday that the transfer of the shares would occur in April 2019 or shortly after that.

The companies concluded a purchase and sales agreement for the transfer in early November 2018 and the completion of the transfer was expected to occur in March.

The company added that Toshiba Group would withdraw from all business related to the purchase and sale of LNG in the US.

Under the transfer agreement, all contracts related to the sale of US LNG entered into by the Toshiba Group, including those between Toshiba and customers will either be transferred to ENN or canceled.

As for the financial part of the deal, ENN will pay $15 million for the transfer. Also, Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corporation will pay $821 million to the buyer.

It is worth reminding that the Japanese conglomerate decided to part with its US LNG assets following the inability to find buyers for the 2.2 million tons of LNG booked at the Freeport LNG terminal in Texas, under a 20-year deal.

Toshiba has already booked an $818 million charge for exiting the LNG business and stated that the move was to avoid further losses.