KUALA LUMPUR, April 15 (Bernama) -- I Squared Capital, an independent global infrastructure investor, announced a consortium of Japanese investors will become strategic minority shareholders in the Natural Gas Transition Platform (the Platform), a Singapore-based holding company with investments in Indian city gas distribution networks.
According to I Squared Capital in a statement, the transaction will diversify the Platform’s shareholder base and bring in additional long-term capital from the consortium members.
“We are very pleased to attract these long-term and experienced partners to our growing energy Platform. The additional capital provided will be used to support the energy transition in India through the expansion of last-mile city gas distribution infrastructure.
“We regard natural gas as a transitional energy source that will play an important role in global decarbonisation, substituting for more polluting fuels such as diesel and coal, while at the same time supporting India’s urbanisation and industrialisation with stable and affordable energy,” said I Squared Capital Senior Partner, APAC, Harsh Agrawal.
The Platform has active investments in last-mile city gas distribution businesses, including THINK Gas and AG&P Pratham. Together, these companies are developing city gas infrastructure across 19 geographical areas covering 325,000 square kilometres and serving over 85 million people.
Through the use of new infrastructure developed over the last four years, including over 9,000 kilometres of low-pressure gas pipelines, 30 Liquefied Compressed Natural Gas (LCNG) and compressed gas stations and over 430 CNG stations, the Platform will serve millions of vehicles per day and thousands of commercial and industrial users by 2030.
In addition to gas distribution, the Platform will increase investments to boost the consumption of renewable natural gas (biogas) in India, as it is already one of the largest procurers of the country’s biogas and aims to procure about five million tonnes over the next 25 years.
This will support the Indian government’s vision to increase the consumption of biogas, generate employment at the local level, and reduce pollution from crop burning, in addition to also looking to increase the use of green hydrogen using the city gas network.
In the future, the Platform will continue to introduce global best practices, industry-leading technology and best-in-class social and governance practices across the natural gas value chain in India.
-- BERNAMA
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