TC Energy to sell a 65% stake in its Coastal GasLink pipeline

TC Energy has agreed to sell a 65 per cent stake in its Coastal GasLink pipeline project to private investment firm KKR andAlberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo), the company announced Thursday.

The company said alongside the completion of the sale, it will enter into secured financing with a syndicate of banks to fund up to 80 per cent of the $6.2-billion project's construction.

"We look forward to establishing a long-term relationship with KKR and AIMCo as we advance this critical energy infrastructure project," Russ Girling, president and CEO of the Calgary-based company, said in an emailed release.

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In January, TC Energy (then TransCanada Corp.) had announced it had hired RBC to help reduce its interest in the project to between 25 and 49 per cent.

The proposed 670-kilometre pipeline will carry natural gas from the Dawson Creek area of northeastern B.C. toLNG Canada's planned $40-billion export facility in Kitimat.

It has been met with opposition from the Wet'suwet'en Nation, whose territory the pipeline crosses.

The company has said $620 million of the pipeline project's budget will go to contracts for Indigenous companies, and that the project will create 2,500 jobs over four years of construction. It will transport 2.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day.

TC Energy said in conjunction with this sale, it will also give 20 First Nations it's working in partnership witha chance to acquire a 10 per cent equity interest in the project.

Construction on the project started in January 2019.

The sale is expected to close in the first half of next year.