Fundraising

Darby acquires 5% of Colombian oil pipeline

The private equity firm, through its infra fund FINTRA and two co-investors, has acquired 5% of Ocensa, Colombia’s largest oil pipeline, for $385m.

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Fondo de Infraestructura de Transporte de Colombia (FINTRA), a Colombia-based infrastructure fund managed by Darby Private Equity and Grupo Colpatria along with two other co-investors, has acquired a 5 percent stake in Oleoducto Central (Ocensa), Colombia’s largest oil pipeline, Darby said in a statement.

The buyers paid $385 million for the acquisition, which also included 5 percent of the pipeline’s transportation rights from Pacific Rubiales Energy.

“Ocensa is one of the crown jewels of Colombia’s infrastructure assets and will play a critical role in increasing the country’s oil export capacities in the following years,” Darby’s managing director responsible for the Colombian fund, Maria Mercedes Prado, said of the 836-kilometre pipeline.

According to Darby, expansion plans are underway to increase the pipeline’s pumping capacity from 590,000 barrels per day currently to 725,000 barrels per day in the medium term.

Darby, which is the private equity arm of Franklin Templeton Investments, has more than 55 investments in the region.

Founded in 1994 in Washington DC by former US Secretary of the Treasury Nicholas F. Brady, Darby became a fully-owned subsidiary of Franklin Templeton Investments in 2003.