Artá exits Gascan to UBS

Alessia Argentieri
08 February 2019

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Artá Capital, the mid-market private equity arm of Spanish financial entity Grupo March, has sold its majority stake in Portuguese gas distribution company Gascan to UBS infrastructure.

The deal is valued at around €120m, which would equate to 10x the company's 2018 EBITDA. UBS acquired the company via its Archmore International Infrastructure Fund II.

The sale generated a 2.7x return for Artá Capital and an IRR in excess of 65%.

Under Artá's ownership, Gascan boosted its investments and acquired 12 piped propane gas operators in Portugal, adding around 8,000 new customers and increasing its revenues by 30%.

Artá Capital Fund II held its final close in February 2018. The vehicle was backed by approximately 50 investors, including Grupo March through Corporación Financiera Alba, which committed almost half of the fund's capital. Artá Capital II provides €25-60m equity tickets targeting 10 medium-sized Iberian companies valued between €100-500m.

Previous funding
Private equity firm Explorer Investments acquired Gascan from Babcock & Brown Infrastructure for an undisclosed sum in April 2009. A senior financing debt package was provided by Portuguese banks Banco Comercial Português and Montepio.

Artá Capital bought Gascan in February 2017 for around €70m from Explorer Investments. The transaction was financed with an equity ticket of around €16.6m deployed by the GP's €400m Artá Capital Fund II and €13.4m from Deyá Capital IV, a vehicle managed by the GP and wholly controlled by Corporación Financiera Alba, the investment arm of the March Group.

In addition, a debt package of approximately €40m was provided to support the deal. Following the acquisition, Arta controlled a majority stake of around 90% in the company, 40.3% of which was directly owned by Corporación Financiera Alba via its Deyá Capital IV.

Company
Established in 1993 and headquartered in Lisbon, Gascan is a propane gas distributor that serves 70,000 clients in Portugal, distributes 11,000 tons of gas per annum, and manages a network of 1,500 distribution centers and 700 kilometres of pipes. It generated EBITDA of around €12m in 2018.

People
Artá Capital – Ramón Carné Casas, Nicolas Jiménez-Ugarte (managing partners).

Advisers
Acquirer - Haitong (corporate finance); CMS (legal); Clifford Chance (legal).