Here’s who wants the Iren gas network

6 April 20231 year ago babelfish

Iren wants to sell up to 49 percent of its gas network to finance the strategic plan for 2030. The search for a buyer has been entrusted to Rothschild and a possible investor is already appearing: the Australian fund Igneo, which is also aiming for the Rovigo regasification terminal with snam

Iren, a multi-service company based in Emilia-Romagna, intends to sell up to 49 percent of its gas distribution network: the company has over 740,000 customers in the Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont and Liguria regions. The search for the investor was entrusted to the French-British investment bank Rothschild & Co.

IREN'S PLANS

Through the sale of a part of the network, Iren aims to raise economic resources to finance the 10.7 billion euro investments envisaged in the strategic plan to 2030. The company's network is valued at around 800 million; the sale of 49 per cent should therefore allow for a collection of around 400 million.

The goal is to raise resources to finance the 10.7 billion investments envisaged in the plan by 2030.

INVESTMENTS IN THE GAS NETWORK (INCLUDING HYDROGEN PREPARATION)

In the investments to be made by 2030, the Iren group – led by Gianni Vittorio Armani – will allocate 800 million to the maintenance of the gas infrastructure and the updating of the pipes in preparation for hydrogen, which is lighter and more corrosive than methane.

POSSIBLE BUYERS

Among the subjects interested in buying 49 percent of Iren's gas network are the asset management companies AXA (French), Arjun Infrastructure Partners (British) and Igneo Infrastructure Partners (Australia).

IGNEO IS AIMING FOR THE ROVIGO REGASIFICATION PLANT?

Igneo is also one of the possible buyers of the shares of the offshore regasification terminal in Porto Viro (Rovigo). The plant has a regasification capacity of 8 billion cubic meters per year and is managed by Adriatic LNG, a company 71% owned by ExxonMobil, 22% by QatarEnergy and 7.3% by Snam.

According to rumors, Snam could increase its stake to 20-30 per cent; the remainder would instead go into the hands of an infrastructural fund, perhaps Igneo itself.

The price of any operation is not clear, but could be around 1 billion.

– Read also: Italgas, what Cdp Reti and Snam will do

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/iren-rete-gas-igneo/ on Thu, 06 Apr 2023 14:05:21 +0000.