Brookfield Infrastructure announced plans to sells its interest in Chilean power transmission business, ETC Transmission Holdings, to China Southern Power Grid International for US$1.3b.

(Press Release) Brookfield Infrastructure (NYSE:BIP) (TSX:BIP.UN) today announced that it has signed definitive agreements to sell its approximate 27.8% interest in ETC Transmission Holdings, S.L., the parent company of Transelec S.A. (“Transelec”), to China Southern Power Grid International (HK) Co., Ltd. for US$1.3 billion.

“Over the past year we have been focused on executing the next phase of our capital recycling program, seeking to dispose of mature infrastructure assets and to redeploy the proceeds in higher-returning opportunities,” said Sam Pollock, Chief Executive Officer of Brookfield Infrastructure. “Proceeds from the sale of Transelec will be used to fund our growing backlog of organic growth projects, as well as our robust pipeline of transactions.”

Transelec is the largest pure-play power transmission company in Chile, with over 10,000 kilometers of electricity lines serving approximately 98% of the Chilean population.

Closing of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, certain third-party consents and applicable regulatory approvals from relevant authorities in China and is targeted to occur in the first half of 2018.

Santander GCB and Scotiabank are acting as financial advisors to Brookfield Infrastructure and Goodmans LLP is acting as legal advisor.