QIC Infrastructure has announced plans to acquire Iona Gas Storage Facility (Iona), a natural gas storage in Australia, from EnergyAustralia.

Specifically, a QIC led consortium has entered into a binding agreement to acquire the Iona Gas Storage Facility (Iona) west of Melbourne in Victoria from EnergyAustralia, a member of the China Light & Power Group.

The successful QIC Consortium comprising the QIC Global Infrastructure Fund (QGIF) and existing QIC clients will acquire Iona for a purchase price of A$1.78 billion (US$1.3 billion). Financial close is expected to occur in the December-quarter 2015.

Iona, the first underground natural gas storage facility in the country, has long term contracts with major integrated gas and electricity providers. With a storage capacity of 23.5 petajoules, it is a significant storage facility serving South-Eastern Australia.

Ross Israel, Head of QIC Global Infrastructure said,

"I'm delighted that we have been able to achieve this outcome for our clients and QGIF, our pooled global infrastructure fund. For QGIF, it builds on the successful first close achieved on 4 August 2015."

"Iona is a strategic, high-quality infrastructure asset in the Australian east coast gas market. It provides essential storage facilities to domestic integrated utilities to service intermediate and peak gas demand."

"We believe Iona is an attractive core infrastructure asset for our clients with an essential role in the Australian east coast energy supply value chain. It has long term contracts with its customers, which underpin stable and predictable cashflows while also presenting a platform for further  growth and expansion opportunities."