Italy's largest gas distributor Italgas has agreed to buy its rival 2i Rete Gas in a €5.3bn deal, including debt. The equity value of the transaction is €2.06bn, while 2i Rete Gas' net financial debt and liabilities at the end of 2023 amounted to €3.25bn. The closing of the transaction is expected in the first half of 2025, subject to regulatory approvals. Italgas will cover the cost of the deal via a bridge financing initially underwritten by JP Morgan and syndicated to a group of banks including Banco BPM, BofA Securities, Citi, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Société Générale.
Italgas is the largest gas distributor on the regulated market with over 61 000 km of pipelines and 6.9 bcm distributed to 6.4 million customers in 2023 (27% of total distributed volumes in 2023). 2i Rete Gas (64% owned by the Italian infrastructure fund F2i) is the second largest gas distributor, with nearly 72 000 km of pipelines, 4.9 million customers, and 5.2 bcm of gas distributed in 2023 (20% of distributed volumes in 2023).