SC round-up: Wrappers’ delight

Three monoline insurers were used to credit wrap Scotia Gas Networks’ £2.22 billion ($3.9 billion) bond sale via sole arranger Barclays Capital, and lead managers Citibank, RBS and DrKW in October. This deal refinanced acquisition loans extended for the purchase of the Scotland Gas Networks and Southern Gas Networks from National Grid Transco in June (five out of nine networks were also sold). Although investors are hungry for stable investment-grade credit (BBB in this case), the lack of financial history – a requirement for an exchange listing – meant that arranger Barclays was required to bring in the monolines – Ambac, FSA and XL Capital. The structure was sliced into 11 tranches and sold to a wide variety of investors (euro and sterling, fixed, floating and index linked). SGN is owned by Scottish and Southern Energy (50%), Ontario Teachers (25%) and Borealis Infrastructure (25%).