The last remaining chunk of National Gas – the network of gas pipes that fuels the entire UK – has just been bought by notorious bank Macquarie. It comes as, ironically, the Labour Party gave half-baked noises off over our privatised water.
This is because the company who now owns the whole of the country’s main gas supply pipes is the same company that got Thames Water into the unmitigated mess it’s now in. However, what the sale of National Gas also shows is exactly how Labour’s Great British Energy con will function.
National Gas: all bought out
Back in 2022, National Grid agreed to sell a controlling stake in Britain’s gas network for £4.2 billion to an Australian-Canadian investment consortium. The company sold a 60% share of its gas division to a consortium including Australian bank Macquarie in order to refocus on electricity. National Grid said at the time that it:
agreed to sell a 60% equity interest in its UK gas transmission and metering business to a consortium of long-term infrastructure investors.
As the Times reported, National Gas:
owns and operates Britain’s 4,700 miles of gas transmission pipes, which transport gas at high pressure around the country. Thereafter gas is distributed to homes and businesses via lower-pressure regional pipeline networks
The consortium also comprised Canada’s British Columbia Investment Management Corporation. At the time, National Grid retained a 40% share.
The deal was also aimed at “enhancing” the company’s role in the energy transition, as the UK government eyes a 2050 net zero carbon target. National Grid chief executive John Pettigrew said:
This transaction further enhances our role in delivering the UK’s energy transition, pivots our portfolio towards electricity, whilst ensuring the security of the energy supply for the country.
In 2022, the deal valued the entirety of National Gas at £9.6 billion. Then, in 2023 Macquarie bought another 20% of National Gas.
Now, National Grid has flogged the final 20% to the bank – and it’s already raised eyebrows.
Blood-sucking capitalist vampires
As the Times reported:
The Australian bank that has been dubbed the “vampire kangaroo” by its critics has become the sole owner of Britain’s gas pipeline network after buying the remaining stake it did not already own.
A consortium led by Macquarie Asset Management has bought the remaining 20% holding in National Gas for about £700 million in a deal with National Grid.
Why, might you ask, has Macquarie been dubbed the “vampire kangaroo”? Take a look at Thames Water and you’ll understand why.
The Financial Times wrote:
Macquarie is the biggest private sector owner of infrastructure assets in the world and one of the largest in the UK, with stakes in everything from wind farms to airports and telecoms networks.
It is best known for its former ownership of crisis-hit Thames Water…
Macquarie’s ownership of Thames Water has been widely criticised after the utility’s debt increased from £3.4bn in 2006, when it bought into the business, to £10.8bn when it sold its final stake in 2017, according to Financial Times research.
About £2.7bn was taken out in dividends and £2.2bn in loans during that period, although Macquarie has said it spent £11bn from customer bills on infrastructure.
So, first Macquarie screwed Thames Water over. Now, it has the chance to do the same to National Gas. But that’s not even the end of the story.
Labour’s Great British Energy: exactly what just happened to National Gas
National Gas runs the main pipelines across the UK. But as the Financial Times noted, gas gets to our homes via smaller networks of pipes that are run by other companies. Guess who owns some of these?
Macquarie already owns a stake in Cadent — which runs half of the eight local gas distribution networks — but has been trying to cut its position, joining forces with another shareholder to sell a combined £1.3bn stake in the company.
It is understood that the sale is part of a “standard portfolio rebalancing” and that Macquarie will still retain a sizeable 20 per cent stake in Cadent, which provides gas to 11mn homes and businesses in England.
So, Macquarie will not only own the whole of the UK’s main gas pipes, but will also own a bit chunk of the smaller pipes too.
After its vampiric financial blood-sucking on Thames Water, it looks like the Australian bank can now get its teeth into our gas infrastructure, too.
So, what might the Labour government do about this? Not a lot, by all accounts.
As the Canary has consistently reported, Keir Starmer’s grand design for the UK’s energy needs is Great British Energy. All this is is a publicly-funded and run green hedge fund. The government will put money in to develop green tech, infrastructure, and projects which the private sector will then run.
Which is exactly what has just happened with National Gas – because the gas network was built by the government with public money back in the early 1960s.
So, take a peek into the future, folks – because it’s a brave new world under Starmer. You and us will pay for our new renewable energy infrastructure, and then promptly let companies like Macquarie run it into the ground before (probably predictably) the public will likely have to buy it back again or bail it out.
Thank God for Starmer, hey?
Featured image via the Canary
