Goldman, 3i and Borealis bid for Swedish electricity grid
According to sources, two bidding groups will submit final offers for the Swedish 2,400 km power grid of Finnish utility Fortum ahead of a March 11 deadline. The deal could be worth around €6 billion ($6.7 billion)
The teams bidding for the firm would be the following:
- Borealis, the infrastructure investment arm of Canadian pension fund OMERS with Swedish pension funds.
- The infrastructure arm of Goldman Sachs, 3i's infrastructure arm and sovereign wealth funds.
Fortum may be willing to have something to announce at its annual shareholders' meeting on March 31.
Macquarie and Cheung Kong Infrastructure (CKI) expressed interest in the company but they are no longer in the race.
In December 20013 Fortum sold its Finnish grid to a consortium of investors led by First State Investments and Borealis Infrastructure for €2.55 billion (US$3.2 billion).
It also divested its smaller Norwegian electricity distribution business, as well as a stake in gas utility Gasum.
Fortum, through this transaction, aims to cut debt and to focus on power generation and renewable energy.Fortum Oyj is a Finnish energy company focusing on the Nordic and Baltic countries, Poland and Russia. Fortum operates power plants, including co-generation plants, and generates and sells electricity, heat and steam. In addition, it has stakes in gas companies Gasum in Finland and Eesti Gaasin Estonia.
