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Deutsche Bank Fund, Macquarie Interested in Buying RWE's German Gas Grid
Deutsche Bank AG’s infrastructure- investment arm and Macquarie Group Ltd. are among companies that expressed interest in buying RWE AG’s natural-gas network in Germany, valued at as much as 500 million euros ($641 million), according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Deutsche Bank’s RREEF infrastructure arm manages a fund for institutional investors that plans to bid for the pipeline network, said four people, who asked not to be identified because the deal is private. Macquarie, Australia’s largest investment bank which also runs infrastructure-investment funds, indicated it may want to purchase the asset, three people said.
RWE decided in 2008 to sell the 4,100 kilometer-long (2,550 mile) grid in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, bordering the Netherlands. The asset could fetch 300 million to 500 million euros, according to Christian Kleindienst, an energy-industry analyst at UniCredit Group SpA.
“The asset is attractive because of the growth prospects,” said Kleindienst, who has a “market weight” recommendation on RWE’s bonds. “Gas will continue to play a significant role in the country’s energy mix in the coming decades.”
Indications of interest in the pipeline network were due at the end of August, four of the people said. The RWE unit, Thyssengas GmbH, had revenue of more than 200 million euros in 2009, according to the Essen, Germany-based parent company’s annual report published in February.
The German government wants to open the gas market to greater competition and to help increase traffic between the RWE network and neighboring pipelines.
Officials at the RREEF unit and a spokeswoman for Macquarie in London declined to comment.
Other Interest
Annett Urbaczka, a spokeswoman for Essen, Germany-based RWE, declined to say how many companies may bid and wouldn’t identify suitors. The company has started the sale of the grid and approached potential buyers inside and outside Germany, Urbaczka said Aug. 11. The utility wants to conclude the sale by the end of the year, she said at the time.
Bayerngas GmbH, a German regional energy supplier, may team up with local utilities and financial partners to buy the network, Managing Director Marc Hall said in an interview in February. The company, seeking to expand in fuel supply and transport, has already joined E.ON AG and three other companies to form the NetConnect Germany market area, which handles most of Germany’s high-calorific gas.
Bayerngas’s press department in Munich didn’t immediately return a phone call from Bloomberg seeking comment today. The company said Aug. 27 that it wouldn’t comment on the status of the transaction.
To contact the reporter on this story: Nicholas Comfort in Frankfurt at ncomfort1@bloomberg.net Aaron Kirchfeld in Frankfurt at akirchfeld@bloomberg.net Ambereen Choudhury in London at achoudhury@bloomberg.net
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