ANTHONY WILSON
Consultant Business Editor
anthony.wilson@guardian.co.tt
Global rating agency S&P has downgraded its long-term issuer credit and issue-level ratings on Consolidated Energy Ltd (CEL), a subsidiary of the largest operator on the Point Lisas Industrial Estate, from B to ‘CCC+’, placing the company deeper into junk-bond status.
S&P describes CEL as one of the largest producers of methanol and nitrogen worldwide, with a presence in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. The company owns five methanol plants, one nitrogen facility, and a minority interest in two ammonia plants in T&T, as well as two methanol plants in the US- including a 50 per cent controlling interest in a Texas methanol joint venture, called Natgasoline, along with natural gas reserves and production on the Gulf Coast.
Switzerland-headquartered Proman, the parent of CEL, owns or operates 14 petrochemical facilities on the Point Lisas Industrial Estate, comprising five methanol plants, two ammonia plants and a seven-plant AUM complex, producing Ammonia, Urea Ammonium Nitrate (UAN), and Melamine.
Given its size, Proman is likely to be among the top five foreign exchange earners in T&T.
The rating agency said a company or country that is rated CCC is “currently vulnerable to non-payment and is dependent upon favourable business, financial and economic conditions for the obligor to meet its financial commitments on the obligation.”
In a rating report dated November 3, 2025, S&P said that CEL’s short-term liquidity position is strained by upcoming debt maturities, a situation further complicated by weaker-than-expected operating cash flow.
“CEL faces a $224 million (as of June 30, 2025) 6.5 per cent senior unsecured note maturity in 2026 (within the next 12 months). We assess CEL’s liquidity as weak, given its current cash position, partially drawn committed credit lines and decreased cash flow from operations in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) and Oman,” said S&P.
“Year to date, CEL’s adjusted methanol sales (excluding Natgasoline) have decreased by 13 per cent, primarily due to production interruptions, highlighting the planned and unplanned outages of the T&T and Oman operations.
“While insurance has covered some plant disruptions in the past, recovery amounts have not adequately compensated for the EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation) the company could have otherwise generated,” according to the S&P rating report.
Natgasoline is a Beaumont, Texas-based joint venture between Proman USA, and Vancouver, Canada based, Methanex, the operator of the Titan methanol plant at Point Lisas.
The rating agency said its revised 2025 adjusted forecast indicates that EBITDA will be constrained because of lower methanol production in T&T, while prices remain at lower levels.
S&P said of CEL, “We estimate CEL maintaining utilisation rates at its methanol facility in T&T at about 65 per cent of the reported 4.1 million tonnes capacity (or 75-80 per cent without idle capacity) and at 90 to 95 per cent at its Oman plant of the 1.1 million tonne capacity for the next couple years.”
The S&P ratings report indicated that CEL lent its parent, Proman, US$360 million in the first half of 2024. That loan was for general corporate purposes of the parent company, which included funding the acquisition of an additional stake in Oman Methanol Company (OMC).
In December 2023, Proman paid the Government (through Clico) US$347 million to acquire all of the insurance company’s shareholding in Methanol Holdings (International) Ltd, with the Swiss company becoming the 60 per cent shareholder of the Oman-based methanol company. (See sidebar)
The expectation was that the US$360 million loan would have been repaid by the end of 2025, according to the rating agency.
“The company’s prioritisation of its parent’s (Proman AG) interests, over its deleveraging and reduction of refinancing risks, has eroded its financial policy.
“We previously expected the December 2025 repayment of an approximately US$360 million loan from its parent to drive a rapid improvement in CEL’s debt to EBITDA. “However, the extension of this loan’s repayment to 2031 has significantly reduced our expectation of CEL’s deleveraging in the near term. This increases the risk of unpredictable credit metrics and weaker performance than in our prior projections,” S&P stated.
As of June 30, 2025, S&P estimated that CEL’s total adjusted gross debt was US$2.8 billion, mainly comprising the company’s and subsidiaries’ senior unsecured notes (60 per cent),
The rating agency gave a stable outlook to CEL’s CCC+ rating, which “reflects our expectation that the company will navigate industry and economic challenges while refinancing upcoming maturities, though it continues to depend on favourable conditions.”
CEL’s formal response
“CEL can confirm that the debt and interest numbers quoted are broadly accurate, as this is public information that has been shared with the investor community. CEL’s debt levels have been largely consistent over the past years and reflect the company’s funding of capital expansion in the US, Mexico, Oman, as well as investments in Trinidad and Tobago.
“The recent S&P report refers to historic outages in 2023 and 2024. It does not reflect current operating rates or performance. CEL achieved a solid performance in Q4 2025 and is optimistic for 2026 and continued good performance going forward.”
Asked whether Proman T&T has received more natural gas as a result of the closure of Nutrien’s nitrogen facilities at Point Lisas on October 23, Giselle Thompson, Proman T&T’s deputy managing director, said, “Proman has seen some minor improvements in the allocation of natural gas to its facilities over the last two months, but we do not know if that is in any way related to Nutrien.”
About CEL
In its first annual return in 2001, CF Financial was listed as CEL’s sole shareholder with one share. On March 4, 2002, Duprey ceased to be a director of CEL. He was replaced by Erwin Keutner. By September 12, 2003, CL Financial had no shares in CEL, and the three shareholders of the company were Proman, Ferrostaal and Helm.
In 2025, CEL’s sole shareholder is Consolidated Energy AG, a private Swiss company whose physical address is Wollerau, Switzerland, according to CEL’s 2025 annual report filed with the T&T Companies Registry and stamped on October 3, 2025. That report indicates that CEL has no employees and is, therefore, not required to have an NIS employer registration number.
CEL directors are: Themo Lambert, a business economist with a German address; Claus Cronberger, a process engineer with a Valsayn address; Nicole Wickham, an accountant with a Barbados address; and Richardo Mohammed, managing director with a Switzerland address.
The beneficial owners of the company are listed as Joseph Cassidy, David Cassidy, Herman Kaestner, Stephan Schnabel, Daniel Beck and Heinz Juergen Frommelt. David Cassidy is the CEO of Proman
For more than 16 years, CEL’s main shareholding was its 43.47 per cent shareholding in Methanol Holdings (International) Ltd, which jointly owned a methanol plant in Oman with a company from the Middle Eastern country. Clico was the majority shareholder of MHIL with a 56.53 per cent stake.
Originally, the previous administration of the People’s National Movement planned to acquire Clico’s shares in MHIL equal to 36.63 per cent. The PNM administration’s initial plan was to use the shares in MHIL as the assets to secure NIF (National Investment Fund) 2 and, at the same time, reduce part of Clico’s $18 billion debt to the State for the 2009 bailout. That arrangement would have left the insurer with 19.90 per cent in MHIL, which was in conformity with T&T’s Insurance Act.
Former finance minister Colm Imbert, in a newspaper interview in January 2024, said on 12 occasions CEL (Proman) refused the government’s offer to sell the shares in MHIL.
But as soon as the government announced its intention to use some of Clico’s shares in the methanol producer in the NIF, Imbert said Proman threatened legal action to stop the arrangement.
