Macquarie Asset Management has provided debt financing to Energy Infrastructure Partners (EIP) to facilitate its acquisition of a minority stake in Fluxys.

The Switzerland-based asset manager backed EIP’s agreement to acquire a 19.85% stake in Fluxys as part of a consortium with Belgian institutional investors.

Fluxys is a leading independent provider of natural gas transmission, storage and terminalling infrastructure headquartered in Belgium – operating approximately 12,000km of pipelines, 7.6TWh of underground storage capacity, and 380TWh/h of regasification capacity. 

Alice Pulbrook, a senior vice president at Macquarie Asset Management, said “It is a challenging time in the European energy sector as it tackles the task of securing supply at an affordable price while decarbonising, and this requires unprecedented investment and transformation.

”We are pleased to partner with Energy Infrastructure Partners to support its investment in Fluxys and look forward to seeing the business push forward with its ambitious plans.”

Tim Marahrens, partner and co-head of investments at EIP, said “Fluxys’ assets today help form the strategic backbone of European energy markets. Looking at our potential to grow over the next decades into areas like hydrogen and carbon capture and storage, we are excited to cement this role and write the future of the energy industry together.

”We are grateful to our close partners and colleagues at Macquarie Asset Management for their collaboration on this important acquisition.”

To read the latest edition of the latest IPE Real Assets magazine click here.