Herbert Smith Freehills' London private equity team has advised Antin Infrastructure Partners on the acquisition of BG Group's majority stake in the Central Area Transmission System (CATS) gas pipeline in the North Sea.
The deal is the first for Antin’s recently closed Fund II.
Under the terms of the acquisition agreement, Antin now owns a 62.78 per cent interest in CATS. The consideration is up to GBP562 million (including a potential deferred amount of GBP39 million) and the deal closed on 10 July 2014.
CATS comprises a fixed-riser platform linked to the Everest oil and gas platform, a 404-kilometre, subsea pipeline and a two-train onshore gas processing terminal at Teesside. The deal follows the recent recommendation by Sir Ian Wood (in his strategic review of the UK oil and gas industry) to seek investment by infrastructure specialists in the North Sea.
The Herbert Smith Freehills team was led by James MacArthur, head of private equity.
MacArthur says: "We are very pleased to have assisted Antin in closing this ground-breaking deal. This is the second deal that the private equity team in London has completed for Antin Infrastructure Partners in the last year and it is the first deal to be completed out of their recently closed Fund II. We look forward to continuing to work with Antin in the future."
