Enagas cancels the acquisition of 20% of the BBL gas pipeline

Feb 16 (Reuters) – Spanish grid operator Enagas has canceled the acquisition of a 20% stake in the BBL gas pipeline from German power utility Uniper, the Spanish market regulator said.

“The company communicates that the closing of the transaction will not occur because the current shareholders of BBL have exercised their preferential right of acquisition,” Enagás said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

The price of the transaction, announced on January 16, was 75 million euros ($80 million).

BBL operates a 235 kilometer gas pipeline between the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, with an hourly capacity of 20,600,000 kilowatt hours.

The Dutch network operator Gasunie holds a 60% stake in BBL, while the Belgian companies Fluxys and Uniper each hold 20%.

The sale of the stake in BBL is part of a package of measures demanded by the European Commission in exchange for the approval of the German state bailout and the nationalization of Uniper agreed at the end of the year last.

(1 dollar = 0.9347 euros)

(Reporting by Matteo Allievi; editing by Inti Landauro and Jason Neely;