February 3, 2016 [OPIS] - NGL Energy Partners said on Tuesday that it has closed the sale of its interest in TransMontaigne GP LLC (TLPGP) to Gulf TLP Holdings LLC, an affiliate of ArcLight Capital Partners (ArcLight) for $350 million in cash.
TLPGP is the general partner of TransMontaigne Partners LP, a Delaware master limited partnership (TLP) and holds the 2% general partner interest and incentive distribution rights of TLP.
NGL will use the cash proceeds to repay borrowings outstanding on its revolving credit facility.
The TransMontaigne marketing business is a significant part of NGL’s refined products business and remains with NGL uninterrupted by this transaction.
NGL will retain TransMontaigne Product Services LLC, its customer contracts and its line space on the Colonial and Plantation pipelines.
NGL will retain approximately 3.2 million common units it owns in TLP and has granted an option to ArcLight to purchase 800,000 of those common units at a future date.
TransMontaigne is a terminaling and transportation company based in Denver, Colo., with operations along the Gulf Coast, in the Midwest, in Brownsville, Texas, along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers and in the Southeastern United States.
NGL had said previously that the TransMontaigne sale would allow NGL to successfully execute growth plans in a challenging operating environment for MLPs.
Mike Krimbill, CEO of NGL Energy Partners said in January that NGL will remain the long-term exclusive tenant in the TLP Southeast terminal system.
“NGL will enter into certain commercial transactions with, as well as provide various transition services for, ArcLight,” he said.
The acquisition of TransMontaigne GP will mark the fourth major refined product terminals acquisition for ArcLight in the last 12 months, said Dan Revers, managing partner and co-founder of ArcLight.
OPIS notes that ArcLight has been very aggressive in the merger and acquisition market recently. ArcLight took over Gulf Oil on Dec. 29. Many Gulf Oil personnel are veterans of the TransMontaigne and Louis Dreyfus joint-venture that became the TransMontaigne Group.