Columbia Pipeline Partners LP (CPPL) (“CPPL”), a NiSource Inc. (NI) company, today provided its average distribution growth outlook through 2020. Subject to the key assumptions described below, CPPL expects to offer unitholders an average annual distribution growth rate of approximately 20 percent.
“With approximately $8 billion in capital being deployed over the next several years at Columbia Pipeline Group, we plan to create value for CPPL unitholders through transparent and long-term distribution growth,” Robert C. Skaggs Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of CPPL said. “Most of this investment is supported by long-term, fee-based, take-or-pay contracts.”
CPPL’s minimum quarterly distribution is $0.1675 per unit, or $0.67 per unit annually. On April 29, CPPL announced its initial prorated quarterly distribution of $0.0912 per unit to both common and subordinated unitholders, which covered the portion of the first quarter 2015 between the day following the close of the initial public offering on February 11, 2015, and March 31, 2015.
CPPL’s business and operations are conducted through its 15.7 percent interest in CPG OpCo LP and its subsidiaries, which own and operate substantially all of the natural gas transmission, storage and midstream assets of NiSource Inc.’s Columbia Pipeline Group (CPG) unit.
Columbia Pipeline Group outlines post-separation performance outlook through 2020
In a NiSource press release issued this morning, CPG outlined its post-separation business strategy and growth outlook, which included among other things, that the expected net investment in CPG OpCo’s pipeline, storage and midstream assets is expected to grow from approximately $4.6 billion at the beginning of 2015 to approximately $13.5 billion at year-end 2020. Total capital expenditures from 2016 to 2020 are expected to reach approximately $8.4 billion, of which approximately $4 billion is planned to be funded by the issuance of CPPL equity. Total capital expenditures include maintenance capital of approximately $135 million a year.
The committed project inventory is expected to deliver CPG EBITDA (non-GAAP) of approximately $680 million, excluding separation costs, in 2015, with an average annual growth rate of approximately 20 percent through 2020. For a reconciliation of CPG’s EBITDA outlook to GAAP for 2015, please see the CPPL Form 8K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on May 14, 2015.
CPG post-separation performance outlook webcast scheduled for today
CPG’s executive team will provide an overview of CPG’s business strategy, highlighting its growth and infrastructure investment inventory, today at 10:30 a.m. – noon ET. A webcast of the event with accompanying presentations will be available atwww.nisource.com. The webcast also will be archived at the NiSource website.
About Columbia Pipeline Partners LP
Columbia Pipeline Partners LP, based in Houston, Texas, is a fee-based, growth-oriented master limited partnership formed to own, operate and develop a growing portfolio of natural gas pipelines, storage and related midstream assets.
CPPL’s business and operations are conducted through CPG OpCo LP and its subsidiaries, which own and operate substantially all of the natural gas transmission, storage and midstream assets of NiSource Inc.’s Columbia Pipeline Group unit. Columbia Pipeline Group operates approximately 15,000 miles of strategically located interstate pipelines extending from New York to the Gulf of Mexico, one of the nation’s largest underground natural gas storage systems, and a growing portfolio of related gathering and processing assets. The majority of its assets overlay the Marcellus and Utica Shale production areas. Additional information can be found atwww.columbiapipelinepartners.com and www.columbiapipelinegroup.com. NI-F
