Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec is boosting its ownership stake in Énergir in a deal that will make the province’s main natural gas distributor entirely Quebec-owned.
The Montreal-based pension fund manager said Tuesday it will increase its majority stake in Trencap LP, the sole owner of Énergir, to 80.9 per cent. The Fonds de solidarité FTQ labour fund owns the balance.
The Caisse’s first investment in Énergir dates back to 2004, but the pension fund consolidated its role as the company’s majority investor last June when Trencap bought Enbridge Inc.’s 38.9-per-cent interest in Énergir’s parent company Noverco. That transaction was valued at $1.14-billion.
No additional financial details were provided on this latest deal. The Caisse is buying the stakes held by two other investors, namely the British Columbia Investment Management Corp. and the University of Quebec’s pension plan.
Énergir’s traditional business is selling natural gas, but the company has been diversifying in recent years. Fully half of its $9-billion in assets are now involved in the production and distribution of electricity and renewable energies such as hydro, wind and solar.
The Caisse operates under a dual mandate to maximize returns for its depositors while making what it calls “a sustained and durable contribution” to the Quebec economy. The pension fund announced last year it would sell off its remaining oil-producing assets and set up a $10-billion fund to decarbonize other high-emitting industrial sectors in which it is invested in a new stage of its strategy to get to net-zero emissions by 2050.
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Nicolas Van Praet