AXA Investment Managers – Real Assets (AXA IM – Real Assets) is to acquire, on behalf of clients, and in a joint venture with Crédit Agricole Assurances and Fluxys, a 35.76 per cent stake in the Dunkirk LNG regasification terminal (Dunkirk LNG) in Northern France.
With Fluxys already holding 25 per cent in the facility, the company through the consortium will have ~30.39 per cent in the capital of the terminal while AXA Investment Managers – Real Assets, on behalf of its clients, and Crédit Agricole Assurances each will hold ~15.19 per cent. The vendors are EDF Développement Environnement (EDF) and Total Gaz Electricité Holding France (Total), who between them own a 75 per cent stake and have also agreed to sell 39.24 per cent to a consortium of Korean investors led by IMP Group.
Commissioned in January 2017, Dunkirk LNG is one of Continental Europe’s largest liquefied natural gas terminals. With an annual regasification capacity of 13 billion m3 and storage capacity of 600,000 m³, Dunkirk LNG can meet 20 per cent of France and Belgium’s gas demand. The terminal also benefits from flexible access to the UK, and other North-western European countries.
Dunkirk LNG’s business is underpinned by long duration underlying earnings with about three-quarters of the terminal’s capacity committed to EDF and Total under take-or-pay contracts until 2036. The remaining quarter of terminal capacity serves the evolving North-western Europe LNG market.
This acquisition follows AXA IM – Real Assets’ acquisition in March, of a 15 per cent stake in Agility Trains West in the UK, and its earlier acquisition of a stake in the A63 motorway in France.
Mark Gilligan, Head of Infrastructure Equity at AXA IM – Real Assets, says: “In early 2017 we identified Dunkirk LNG as an ideal addition to our managed portfolio. We were especially impressed by its superb engineering, strategic location and essentiality to the long-term secure energy supply of North-western Europe. We value investing alongside aligned financial and operating partners – importantly, Fluxys has a reputation for operational excellence including health, safety and the environment. More broadly, we consider natural gas an important component of a low carbon future.”
