NPS co-invests in Morgan Stanley fund’s US energy firm purchase

The National Pension Service (NPS) has poured around $100 million into a co-investment led by a Morgan Stanley fund to acquire units of a US shale gas gathering and processing company for approximately $1.75 billion.

North Haven Infrastructure Partners II, an investment vehicle of Morgan Stanley, agreed in April to buy Delaware Basin subsidiaries of Texas-based Brazos Midstream Holdings LLC in a cash deal, according to a Morgan Stanley announcement.

SK Holdings Co. Ltd., South Korea’s biggest energy company, has also invested $251 million in the acquisition, the company said in a regulatory filing in May.

The transaction includes committed debt financing of $950 million underwritten and arranged by Jefferies Finance LLC and Royal Bank of Canada, Morgan Stanley added.

The co-investment by NPS was first reported by the Seoul Economic Daily on Sept. 20 and confirmed by a source with knowledge of the matter.

It comes after the $580 billion pension scheme put around 100 billion won into an equity stake in Dental Corporation, Canada’s largest network of dental clinics, in a co-investment with a private equity firm earlier this year.

In the ASK 2018 Private Equity & Debt Summit hosted by the Korea Economic Daily in May, then the global private equity head of NPS, Hyung-Don Choe, said that the pension fund called for co-investing for large buyouts when writing $100 million equity checks.

Choe has been leading the global alternative investment division since August.

NPS is reportedly in the final stages of picking chief investment officer among three shortlisted candidates.

By Chang Jae Yoo

yoocool@hankyung.com