Press Releases
Partners Group invests in the Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group on behalf of its clients
Baar-Zug, 23. September 2010
Partners Group, the global private markets investment manager, has closed a direct investment in the Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group (NCIG) on behalf of its clients.
NCIG received approval from the New South Wales Government in Australia to build and operate a new Coal Export Terminal (CET). The CET is strategically located in the Port of Newcastle and the first stage of the terminal opened in the beginning of May 2010 and has a capacity of 30 million tons per annum when fully commissioned. Due to the demand for additional coal loading capacity from New South Wales export producers and growth prospects in the thermal coal markets of Asia Pacific, NCIG intends to expand the capacity of the CET to 53 million tons per annum.
Partners Group, on behalf of its clients, provided a subordinated debt financing to NCIG of AUD 27 million to support this second development stage. From a risk/return perspective, the subordinated debt tranche offers attractive terms with strong downside protection due to secure revenue streams which are based on long-term "ship or pay" agreements (a buyer agrees to pay for contracted transportation capacity regardless of actually transported volumes) from long-life source mines.