Enagas Agrees to Buy 15% Stake in Bilbao LNG Plant From Repsol

Feb. 20, 2011 - PRLog -- The grid operator is paying 40 million euros ($51 million), including debt, to increase its holding in the plant to 40 percent, Madrid-based Enagas said today. Ente Vasco de la Energia and RREEF, the other shareholders, will each have 30 percent after also buying 5 percent stakes from Repsol.

Enagas, which earns a fixed return on investments and makes money from charges for gas transit, operates three of Spain’s six regasification terminals that turn liquefied natural gas back into gas. Spain is Europe’s biggest importer of LNG.

The investment is in line with buying assets in the gas network “whenever they are compatible with objectives for profitability and debt,” Enagas said. The Bilbao plant in northern Spain has a capacity of 300,000 cubic meters of LNG.

Enagas bought BP Plc’s 25 percent stake in the Bilbao plant for 65 million euros last year. Earlier, Spanish utility Iberdrola SA had agreed to sell its stakes in the Bilbao and Sagunto regasification plants to RREEF Infrastructure, part of Deutsche Bank AG unit RREEF Alternative Investments.

Asset Growth

Enagas in July said it plans to put 3.4 billion euros of assets in operation through 2014, or an average of 680 million euros a year, more than the average of 550 million euros in 2007 through 2009. It will invest 3.5 billion euros through 2014 on pipelines and storage facilities, or 700 million euros a year.

Chief Executive Officer Antonio Llarden forecasts net income at Enagas will rise at least 7 percent, on average, from 2009 through 2014 after growth of about 10 percent this year. The company estimates debt will increase to 3.27 billion euros at the end of this year. Net debt was 2.9 billion euros in June.

Enagas this year also bought the Gaviota gas storage site from Repsol and Murphy Spain Oil Co. Spanish gas demand rebounded 1.5 percent in the first half from a year earlier after dropping 11 percent last year, according to industry association Sedigas.
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