Germany's Allianz and Italian gas grid company Snam said they will buy 49%of pipeline company Gas Connect Austria from energy group OMV for 601 million euros (US$675 million), confirming what sources had told Reuters.
Investors, such as insurance companies like Allianz, are increasingly turning to infrastructure projects offering regulated returns to help them secure safe yields and offset the impact of low interest rates.
Europe's gas pipelines are also attracting industrial players such as state-controlled Snam, keen to play a role in the EU's plans to integrate grids across the bloc.
Snam, which is Europe's biggest gas pipeline and which has a strategic alliance with Belgium's Fluxys, already controls French grid TIGF and Austrian pipeline TAG. It also recently bought a 20% stake in the Trans Adriatic Pipeline that will bring Azeri gas into Europe.
The price for Sept. 22's deal is at the upper limit of a range that sources had indicated for the stake, which Australia's Macquarie and the Czech energy group EPH had also been interested in.
OMV is selling noncore assets to generate cash while restructuring its gas business after low oil prices affected its profits.
Allianz and Snam will hold 60% and 40%, respectively, of the vehicle that will be used to buy the stake.
GCA, which had revenues of 248 million euros in 2014, operates pipelines stretching 900 kilometers (560 miles) across central Europe, supplying Austria, Germany, France, Slovenia, Croatia, and Hungary. It also deals with gas marketing. (US$1 = 0.8909 euros)
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