Sempra's Mexican Unit To Buy Remaining Stake In Joint Venture For $1.33 Bln.

(RTTNews) - Sempra Energy's (SRE) Mexican subsidiary, Infraestructura Energética Nova S.A.B. de C.V. on Friday agreed to buy Petróleos Mexicanos's 50-percent equity interest in the Gasoductos de Chihuahua joint venture for $1.325 billion, plus the assumption of about $170 million in net debt.

As a result of the deal, Infraestructura Energética will own 100 percent of the equity capital in Gasoductos de Chihuahua.

The deal is expected to close within 120 days, after approval by Infraestructura Energética shareholders and the satisfactory completion of a Mexican anti-trust review and other customary closing conditions.

The deal is expected to be about $0.05 accretive to Sempra Energy's diluted earnings per share in 2016, growing to about $0.10 per share by 2019 and is expected to be financed with a combination of debt and equity issuances at Infraestructura Energética.

The acquired joint-venture assets are under long-term contracts and include three natural gas pipelines, an ethane pipeline, a liquid petroleum gas pipeline and a LPG storage terminal.

Also, as part of the deal, Infraestructura Energética and Petróleos Mexicanos agreed to maintain a joint venture for the Los Ramones Norte pipeline project, allowing the two companies to continue building on their history of joint development of energy infrastructure projects in Mexico.