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A specialist in LNG storage hopes Aim will be a gas

by Carlo Svaluto Moreolo

A German ship engineer, TGE Marine, plans to join Aim this month with existing shareholders seeking a valuation of €200 million for the company.

TGE Marine will be the only ship-engineering specialist listed in London. The chairman, Michael Alexander, is a former British Energy CEO and senior executive at Centrica and BP.

London-listed investment trust Caledonia Investments’ stake in TGE is just shy of 49%, was worth £38 million as of 31 March and was among the trust’s ten largest holdings.

The other big shareholder is private equity firm Glenalta Capital. Caledonia and Glenalta acquired 75% of TGE for just over €36 million in 2006, when French utility Suez sold it.

The Nomad and broker appointed to handle the float is Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander, which hopes to raise around ?30 million of new money for shares in TGE. First dealings could be as early as 15 May.

TGE Marine offers a turnkey solution for the engineering design, procurement and construction supervision of marine gas handling and storage systems as well as vessel designs. In the year to 2007 it made a €10 million profit before tax.

Most customers are commercial shipyards building gas carriers. TGE is expert in containing and handling toxic, flammable, cryogenically stored gases, has a 70% market share in the ethylene carrier sub-sector, and should benefit from growing global investment in liquid natural gas (LNG).

TGE has headquarters in Bonn and an office in Shanghai. The firm has supplied systems to more than 20 shipyards in Europe, Asia and South America.