By Clara Denina and Shadia Nasralla
LONDON/Aberdeen, Scotland, Sept 4 (Reuters) - AntinInfrastructure Partners has hired investment banks to kick-starta potential $1.5 billion-plus sale of one of Britain's biggestgas pipelines, banking sources and an executive at a subsidiaryof the buyout fund said.
The sale of Central Area Transmission System (CATS), a250-mile pipeline that transports gas from a cluster of NorthSea fields to Teesside in northern England, is expected over thenext 12 months with the help of Bank of America-Merrill Lynchand Citi, Andy Hessel, managing director at KellasMidstream, told Reuters.
Kellas Midstream is the Antin subsidiary that manages CATS,which banking sources said could fetch more than $1.5 billion.
Antin, a private equity fund that mostly specialises inEuropean energy, transport and telecoms investments, bought CATSfrom gas producer BG, now part of Royal Dutch Shell,and BP between 2014 and 2015. It owns 99% of thebusiness, with Italy's Eni and U.S. ConocoPhillipssharing the remaining 1%.
An infrastructure project that was only second in size tothe Channel Tunnel when it was built in the early 1990s, CATStransports about 10% of Britain's annual gas production.
Private equity investors and pension funds have beenattracted by midstream infrastructure assets because of thepotential for steady cash flow through long-term contracts,helping to limit risk when crude prices tumble.
The North Sea offshore basin has undergone a broad change ofguard in recent years as low oil prices prompted major oil andgas companies to sell assets to private equity-backed investorsand specialist operators.
Producers including Neptune Energy, backed by Carlyle Groupand CVC Capital Partners, have raised billions of dollarsto snap up assets from which they believe more oil and gas canbe squeezed
Antin's energy portfolio also includes stakes in solarplants in Spain and an interest in northern French midstream oilcompany Pisto.(Editing by David Goodman)