Macquarie Asset Management, on behalf of its institutional clients and managed funds, has provided Energy Infrastructure Partners (EIP) with debt financing to facilitate its acquisition of a minority stake in Fluxys.
The Switzerland-based asset manager, EIP's agreement to acquire a 19.85 per cent stake in Fluxys as part of a consortium with Belgian institutional investors was announced in September. Fluxys is a leading independent provider of natural gas transmission, storage and terminalling infrastructure headquartered in Belgium - operating approximately 12,000km of pipelines, 7,6 TWh of underground storage capacity, and 380 TWh/h of regasification capacity. Fluxys supplies critical gas services, predominantly across Europe.
Completion of Energy Infrastructure Partners' investment in Fluxys was reached in February 2023 following approval by the Belgian regulator.
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, 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."
Leveraging its extensive pipeline network and experience operating natural gas infrastructure, Fluxys aims to be climate neutral in its own operations by 2035. In addition, it has outlined plans to reconfigure its network to develop hydrogen and CO2 infrastructure in Belgium, helping the country achieve climate neutrality by 2050.
Macquarie Asset Management's private credit offering spans solutions for clients across infrastructure, secure income real estate, and structured credit, with over €11 billion of assets under management1. This announcement follows a suite of recent activity by the team in the European energy sector, including a €100 million debt investment in renewable energy developer Falck Renewables.
