The Spanish gas system operator, Enagas, is exploring its options of buying shares in the US listed company Tallgrass Energy, as reported last week by the online daily El Confidential. According to various sources in the sector, the public company, whose main shareholder is the state through SEPI, has been working discreetly on this operation since last November. In any case, the process is at a preliminary stage, and there are others interested in the US company.
Enagas is thinking about investing around 1 billion euros. This operation is being developed in parallel with the purchase of another significant part of the Kansas listed company by the giant of risk capital Blackstone Infrastructure Partners, which has already bought 44% of the shares of the US transportation company. The US fund manager invested a few days ago some 3.3 billion $ in Tallgrass in an agreement in which the Singapore sovereign wealth fund also participated as a minority partner.
Tallgrass is a transportation company oriented towards growth, which transports crude oil and natural gas from some of the countries most prolific basins in the regions of the Rocky Mountains, the Midwest and the Appalachians, with access to high demand markets in the Rocky Mountains, Midwest and the East of Ohio. The company is currently capitalised at 6.5 billion $.
As long as there are no details or advances in the operation, analysts think the news have no impact. Experts at Banc Sabadell note that the company is constantly analysing operations but “it is also true that the share prices are at historic maximums and it would not be easy to find an operation that creates value.”
On the other hand, Enagas President Antonio Llarden said that the gas pipeline project MidCat, rejected by the Spanish and French regulators, could be looked at again if the problems of the cost share between the two countries, among other things, could be solved. Llarden suggested that this infrastructure could help solve the problem of the price frontier between Spain and France.
