USA: Lightfoot Capital Partners Teams Up with GE to Buy Stake in Gulf LNG Terminal

Lightfoot Capital Partners Teams Up with GE to Buy Stake in Gulf LNG Terminal

Lightfoot Capital Partners, LP announced that it has teamed up with GE Energy Financial Services, a unit of GE, to make a strategic investment in the liquefied natural gas market.

Lightfoot Capital will make a direct investment and own a 48 percent interest in Arc LNG Holdings LLC, which will own a 20 percent interest in Gulf LNG Energy’s terminal in Pascagoula, Mississippi. GE Energy Financial Services, directly and indirectly, controls its 50 percent stake in Gulf LNG while a subsidiary of El Paso Corporation controls the other 50 percent and is the operator.

In a related transaction, GE Energy Financial Services acquired a general partnership interest and a 58 percent limited partnership interest in Lightfoot Capital from certain of its existing investors. Lightfoot Capital is the general partner and majority owner of Arc Terminals LP, a leading independent operator of petroleum and refined product terminals. Arc Terminals operates petroleum product terminals in eight states, with an aggregate storage capacity of 3.6 million barrels.

Our partnership with GE and investment in Gulf LNG Energy underscore our desire to make strategic investments in the U.S. energy logistics and infrastructure sector,” said Vince Cubbage, CEO of Lightfoot Capital. “We feel strongly that GE’s financial backing and expertise within the energy sector will allow us to accelerate our growth strategy within our existing markets as well as related energy logistics asset classes.”

Our investment in Lightfoot Capital reflects our strategy of working with experienced management in areas we know well and pursuing growth platforms in critical US energy infrastructure,” said Dan Castagnola, a Managing Director at GE Energy Financial Services in Houston.

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Source: Lightfoot Capital Partners, October 24, 2011; Image: Port of Pascagoula