New Zealand's largest natural gas pipeline has been sold by Shell and its joint venture partners for $335million, to Australian infrastructure funds manager First State Investments.
It is less than a fortnight since Shell publicly announced it was reviewing all its New Zealand assets, but negotiations for the potential sale of the 35-year-old Maui gas pipeline were already well advanced.
Shell is expected to announce the results of its review in the first quarter of next year, which could range from no changes to an outright sale of exploration and production assets.
Globally, Shell is said to be shedding more than 10,000 jobs, while yesterday's oil price hit an 11-year low, below $US35 ($NZ51) per barrel.
First State Investments is an Australian-based global infrastructure asset manager which recently purchased 100% of Vector Gas from Vector, which owns a gas transmission network and a major part of its gas distribution network elsewhere in New Zealand.
The Maui Mining Companies' shareholders are Shell at 83.75%, OMV NZ 10% and Todd Energy with 6.25%.
Chairman of both Maui Development and Shell New Zealand, Rob Jager, said the sale was "a pleasing development for New Zealanders'', given First State Investments was a leading global infrastructure asset manager with strong expertise in this area, and the Vector transmission gas business had also been the Maui pipeline's technical operator.
It was no longer necessary for the Maui Mining Companies to own the infrastructure, Mr Jager said in a statement yesterday.
The sale is conditional on regulatory approvals, but both parties hope to finalise the sale by mid-2016.
● First State Funds refers to two infrastructure funds managed by First State Investments, known in Australia as Colonial First State Global Asset Management, the funds being Global Diversified Infrastructure Fund and the Colonial First State Active Infrastructure Income Fund.
