New Fortress Energy missed second-quarter earnings estimates on Friday after delays in starting up a floating LNG export facility off the coast of Altamira in Mexico.
New Fortress stock was down 25% on Friday morning on Nasdaq.
The company reported a net loss of $88 million for the quarter and a loss per share of 44 cents, compared with a mean expectation of nine analysts for earnings of 7 cents per share, according to LSEG data.
Revenue fell 23.8% to $428.01 million in the second quarter from $690 million in the first quarter, well below the $509.24 million analysts expected.
Core earnings or EBITDA fell to $120 million from $340 in the first quarter.
Chairman Wesley Edens acknowledged that the performance was disappointing and that it had missed estimates, but blamed this on delays in starting up Mexico's first LNG export facility.
"The misses were entirely a result of the delay in the deployment of our first FLNG ... asset," Edens told an earnings call on Friday.
The company has been trying to develop the floating LNG operation and Edens said it exported its first partial shipment of the superchilled gas on Friday morning.
NFE's goal and forecast is for earnings of $275 million a quarter for the remainder of the year, said Edens who warned the call that third-quarter results will also be negatively impacted by the late startup of the LNG facility, which is not expected to get to full production until Sept. 1.
"We performed our first transfer of a partial cargo earlier this morning. It will now shut down the unit for approximately a week for planned maintenance and then fire back up," Edens said.
New Fortress is counting on incremental growth in LNG demand in Latin America, including countries like Brazil and Jamaica Edens said.
He told the earnings call that New Fortress could land LNG at its customers for about $6 per million British thermal unit (mmbtu), which at today's prices could be a profit of $7 per mmbtu.
"The market is roughly a $6 or $7 higher than that at $13, $13.5 kind of," said Edens.
The chairman added that the price of LNG is expected to come down dramatically from 2027 and beyond as a significant amount of LNG supply is due to come on line from Qatar and the U.S.
"That is why it was important for (the company) to get its first asset up and running as quickly as possible," said Edens.
(Reuters - Reporting by Curtis Williams in Houston; Editing by David Holmes)