Splurge $7.5 billion! Mitsubishi Corporation sets a record in acquiring US shale gas assets, betting on an explosion in energy demand.

Japanese Mitsubishi Corporation announced on Friday that it will acquire shale gas assets in the United States for $7.53 billion (including debt) in order to expand its business in the US energy market. This is the largest acquisition project in Mitsubishi's history and the largest acquisition by a Japanese company in the US shale gas sector. Specifically, Mitsubishi will acquire relevant assets from Aethon Energy Management company located in Texas and Louisiana. The transaction includes a $5.2 billion equity purchase and $2.33 billion in Aethon debt. Mitsubishi plans to further expand its business footprint in the world's largest natural gas market, the United States, leveraging the increasing power demand in data centers, manufacturing, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) export areas. The decision to expand business is based on comprehensive considerations of the growth in domestic consumption, production capacity enhancement, expanded export scale, and sustained increase in future demand in the US. This acquisition action comes after Japan's largest power generation company, JERA, announced in October that it will invest $1.5 billion in the Haynesville shale basin at the border of Louisiana and Texas, and this acquisition is part of Japan's commitment to a $55 billion investment plan in the US. It was reported last month that projects in the energy sector are likely candidates for Japan's investment commitments, but it is currently unclear whether Mitsubishi's investment is included in this investment plan. According to documents submitted to the Tokyo Stock Exchange by Mitsubishi, this investment will further strengthen the company's profitability foundation in natural gas and LNG businesses. The company also stated that this acquisition will accelerate the pace of building an integrated value chain in the US, covering multiple areas such as "upstream natural gas development, power production, data center construction, chemical production, and related businesses." Following the announcement of this transaction, Mitsubishi's stock price in the Japanese market dropped by more than 1%. It is understood that Mitsubishi has multiple investments in the natural gas sector, with projects in Alaska, Malaysia, Canada, Indonesia, and other locations. Mitsubishi currently has a total annual liquefied natural gas production capacity of approximately 15 million tons across various projects, and it is expected that the acquisition of Aethon's assets will double this capacity. In addition, Mitsubishi also plans to expand its power generation and manufacturing business in the US through competitive upstream natural gas projects and further expand its business footprint in the US. Mitsubishi is currently collaborating with American energy company Ovintiv in upstream shale gas development projects in British Columbia, Canada, conducting midstream marketing and logistics business in Houston through its subsidiary CIMA Energy, and exporting liquefied natural gas through LNG Canada and Cameron LNG.