BG Group today announced it had agreed to the sale of its equity interest in the Central Area Transmission System (CATS) gas pipeline in the UK North Sea and associated infrastructure to Antin Infrastructure Partners for total proceeds up to £562 million, or approximately $954 million at current exchange rates.

Under the agreement, BG Group will sell its 62.78% interest in CATS for a consideration comprising £523 million (approximately $888 million) on completion of the transaction and a deferred amount of £39 million (approximately $66 million).

The sale does not impact BG Group's rights to capacity in CATS.

CATS comprises a fixed-riser platform linked to the Everest oil and gas platform, a 404-kilometre, 1 700 million-standard-cubic-feet-of-gas-per-day (mmscfd) capacity subsea pipeline and a two-train onshore gas processing terminal at Teesside which has capacity of 1 200 mmscfd.

It is anticipated the transaction will close in the second half of 2014.

The sale of CATS is expected, on completion, to create a post-tax profit on disposal of approximately $700 million. This may be partly offset by a potential impairment of BG Group's associated UK North Sea assets following the categorisation of the group's interest in CATS as held for sale in the second quarter.

The sale of the CATS interest is in line with BG Group's strategy to actively manage its asset portfolio and deliver value to shareholders.

BG Group plc is a world leader in natural gas, with a broad portfolio of business interests focused on exploration and production and liquefied natural gas.

We announced last week that Antin Infrastructure Partners has closed its second fund, Antin Infrastructure Partners II, with total commitments of €2 billion.