UK’s National Grid to sell 25% stake in Cadent Gas for £1.2bn

UK electricity and gas utility firm National Grid has reached an agreement to divest its remaining 25% equity interest in Cadent Gas to Quadgas Investments Bidco for around £1.2bn.

Quadgas Investments Bidco is a consortium of long-term infrastructure investors, including Macquarie Bank, Allianz Capital Partners, CIC Capital, Hermes Investment Management, Amber Infrastructure/International Public Partnerships, Dalmore Capital and the Qatar Investment Authority.

Through the transaction, National Grid intends to rebalance its business towards a portfolio that delivers asset growth of between 5% and 7%. The parties will complete the transaction between March and October next year.

The development comes after Quadgas acquired a 61% interest in National Grid’s gas distribution networks in March last year. A further agreement has been reached to allow Quadgas to acquire an additional 14% interest in these networks.

Quadgas has also been granted pre-emption rights over the residual 25% interest.

National Grid plans to reinvest the proceeds from the transaction back into the business.

Previously known as National Grid Gas Distribution, Cadent delivers gas to around 11 million consumers.