UBS Asset Management’s (UBS-AM) Real Estate & Private Markets (REPM) has completed the acquisition of a 100 per cent interest in Gascan, the second largest distributor and supplier of piped liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in Portugal, from Arta Capital.
The investment was made on behalf of REPM’s global infrastructure equity strategy, with the transaction completed on an exclusive basis after an unsolicited approach to the Spanish private equity fund Arta Capital.
Gascan distributes and supplies piped LPG throughout Portugal to over 65,000 customers nationwide distributing over 11,000 tons of gas per year, with a network of over 760 km of pipe and circa 2,050 tanks across the country. The majority of customers are domestic, in residential buildings and using the gas for daily needs such as hot water, cooking and heating. The remainder comprise businesses which are supplied in bulk largely through Gascan’s existing domestic network. Gascan also operates a small but growing thermal energy supply business called EnergyCo which supplies hot water and steam to business customers.
Gascan’s strategy is to grow both organically through additional pipeline connections but also through acquiring other smaller networks and taking advantage of a highly fragmented piped LPG market in Portugal.
Bronte Somes, Head of Infrastructure Equity Europe, REPM, says: “This transaction, being REPM’s infrastructure equity platform’s first in Portugal, provides us with attractive portfolio diversification from both a country and sub sector perspective. The asset will deliver stable and attractive cash flows. It also proves our capability to execute transactions on a bilateral basis in the infrastructure mid-market segment.”
Tommaso Albanese, Head of Infrastructure, REPM, adds: “This investment is fully aligned with the infrastructure equity strategy, delivering our clients with long-term and sustainable income streams. We see Gascan as an attractive platform to further consolidate the sector and we believe our long term strategy is key to supporting the business plan of the company. This transaction, negotiated on an exclusive bi-lateral basis, is a clear example of the type of opportunities we source from our broad network to offer investors access to a wide spectrum of infrastructure mid-market investment opportunities.”
