BGCL

Description

British Gas Connections Ltd (“BGCL”) was a wholly owned subsidiary of Centrica plc that was established in 1997 to conduct the gas transportation business for Centrica in the UK. BGCL provided gas services to gas shippers for the transportation of gas to end users.

At acquisition, BGCL had 136,000 connections with an order book of a further 38,000 connections.

Strategy

As a regulated entity operating within agreed charging methodologies applicable to the gas network assets, BGCL benefitted from a stable revenue stream and significant barriers to entry.

BGCL provided the opportunity to add significant scale to the gas transportation business within East Surrey Holdings as part of a roll up in the sector and it was integrated with East Surrey Holdings’ Pipelines (“ESP”) business. The combined business represented a sizeable position within the independent gas transportation market, with trades in the sector showing significant appetite for consolidation.

Outcome

Following its merger with East Surrey Pipelines, the combined business was sold in June 2006.

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BGCL
"Acquisition added scale to East Surrey Holding’s UK operations"
Sector
Utilities
Transaction size
€150m
Status
Realised
Investment year
2005
Exit Year
2006