Partners Group, acting on behalf of its clients, and OPTrust, a Canadian pension fund, have agreed to acquire a 50 percent joint control stake in Superior Pipeline Co., a midstream energy infrastructure company in the United States.
The stake is being acquired from U.S. energy firm Unit Corp., which will continue to hold the remainder of the equity, in a transaction that values Superior at $600 million.
Superior owns and operates three natural gas treatment plants, 13 processing plants, 22 active gathering systems, and approximately 1,455 miles of pipeline across the United States. The majority of its revenues are generated from long-term, fixed-fee contracts.
“We see compelling relative value in the U.S. midstream segment, which is benefiting from the ongoing shale revolution,” said Todd Bright, partner, head of private infrastructure Americas, Partners Group. “The United States has become a net exporter of natural gas for the first time in 60 years, and there is a fundamental need for infrastructure that facilitates the delivery of that gas to end users."
Superior is the latest addition to Partners Group’s substantial portfolio of North American natural gas infrastructure assets. The firm’s most recent transactions include its investment in the construction of the Raven project, an ethylene to butene-1 processing facility to be located in Baytown, Texas, and the $240 million private placement of 10.75 percent class A Convertible Preferred Units of NGL Energy Partners, a diversified midstream energy company. In 2015, Partners Group acquired a joint control stake in Sentinel Energy Center, an 800-megawatt California-based natural gas–fired power generation facility, while in 2014, it acquired a majority stake in Fermaca, a leading provider of long-haul natural gas transportation infrastructure in Mexico and the United States.
