Spain's Enagas sells U.S. asset to finance green hydrogen plans
MADRID, July 10 (Reuters) - Enagas has agreed to sell its 30.2% stake in U.S. energy infrastructure company Tallgrass Energy to finance green hydrogen projects, the Spanish gas grid operator said on Wednesday.
U.S. investment firm Blackstone, which already had a stake in Tallgrass, will pay $1.1 billion for the stake, Enagas said in a statement.
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Enagas expects a 360 million euro ($389.38 million) capital loss from the transaction, which is expected to close by the end of this month, it said.
The transaction is likely to lead to a loss for Enagas this year, said RBC stock analyst Fernando Garcia in a note to investors, though the divestment means a small positive impact on earnings from 2025.
The deal will strengthen Enagas in its plans to invest in renewable hydrogen infrastructure, Sabadell said in a separate report.
Shares in Enagas were up 3.9% in early trading on Wednesday.
Enagas had paid $1.64 billion in 2019 to build the stake in Tallgrass, Garcia said. Enagas invested in Tallgrass together with Blackstone and Singapore's GIC sovereign wealth fund. They later delisted the company.
Enagas - in which the Spanish state owns a 5% stake - aims to transition from its traditional role as a natural gas grid operator to managing a network of hydrogen infrastructure, taking advantage of the government's plans to develop green hydrogen production.
It expects net investment of around 3.2 billion euros will be required through 2030 to develop its planned hydrogen trunk network in Spain and its flagship project, the trans-European H2Med corridor.
To help fund the plan, it has slashed its dividend plans for the next three years.
By the end of the decade, the group's regulated hydrogen assets, worth some 3 billion euros, are expected to exceed those of natural gas, seen at around 2 billion euros.
($1 = 0.9246 euros)
(Reporting by Inti Landauro and Pietro Lombardi; editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Jason Neely and Elaine Hardcastle)