Danish pension fund PensionDanmark will acquire the stake for a consideration of US$240 million.

The investment forms part of PensionDanmark's investments in infrastructure assets and should be seen as complementing its existing investments in wind farms and biomass facilities.

 Torben Möger Pedersen, CEO at PensionDanmark, said:

"This investment is attractive because it generates an attractive inflation linked return with a very low correlation to the business cycle and PensionDanmarks other investments in equity and fixed income, which is the whole idea of this type of investment."

NGT consists of approximately 470 kilometres of offshore pipelines with a daily gas capacity of around 42 million cubic metres. The pipelines carry gas from the Dutch sector of the North Sea to a treatment terminal on the north coast of the Netherlands, from which it is distributed through the Dutch gas network.

TAQA acquired its 40% stake in the NGT-pipelines, which are operated by GDF Suez E&P, from Royal DSM N.V. in 2009. The transaction depends - among other things - on EU approval.

Ancala Partners has advised PensionDanmark on this transaction.

The overall system, comprising not only the pipelines but also two offshore platforms and a treatment terminal, is owned by a small numbers of energy companies, including GDF Suez.

PensionDanmark currently has DKK 9 billion (US$1.63 billion) directly invested in infrastructure and expects to invest a further DKK 9 billion (US$1.63 billion) in infrastructure over the next four years. The majority will be in energy-related infrastructure.

In August 2013, PensionDanmark invested GBP128 million in a new biomass power plant in the UK  through the Copenhagen Infrastructure I fund, which was established in 2012 and is administered by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP). PensionDanmark is the sole investor in the fund with DKK 6 billion (US$1.08 billion).

Before, in June 2013, the fund invested $200 million in America's first offshore wind farm, Cape Wind.