Brazil : Brookfield Infrastructure acquires 90% stake in Petrobras's natural gas pipeline unit.

A group led by Brookfield Infrastructure has completed a US$5.2bn deal to acquire a 90% stake in the natural gas pipeline unit of the Brazilian Petrobras.

CEO Sam Pollock said Brookfield had already made an upfront payment of US$4.2bn to the state-run oil company, with the balance due in 2022.

Pollock said in a company statement, "Closing this transaction was one of our top priorities for 2017. We are deploying approximately US$1.3bn at closing to significantly expand our utilities business in a sector and geography that we know well, where we will earn strong risk-adjusted returns."

Brookfield's partners in the transaction are Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte, China Investment Corp and US private equity company First Reserve Corp.

Petrobras is selling around US$35bn of assets as it tries to overcome a crippling corruption scandal and pay off the largest debt load of the industry.

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