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Stonepeak, Brookfield Weigh Desalination-Plant Sale

Stonepeak, Brookfield Weigh Desalination-Plant Sale

(Bloomberg) -- The owners of Carlsbad Desalination Plant in California have hired an adviser ahead of a potential sale, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant, named after a former mayor, is owned by Orion Water Partners LLC, which is a joint venture comprising Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners and Poseidon Water, an affiliate of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP. The plant could fetch more than $1 billion, including the assumption of debt, said the people, who asked not to be named. Representatives for Stonepeak and Brookfield declined to comment.

The seawater desalination plant delivers almost 50 million gallons of fresh water per day, enough to serve roughly 400,000 people and about a third of all water generated in San Diego County, according to its website.

The ownership group signed a 30-year agreement with the San Diego County Water Authority in 2012, and later constructed a 10-mile (16-kilometer) pipeline as well as the plant itself, which opened in 2015 and is the largest in the Western Hemisphere, according to its website.

Stonepeak on Monday closed its third infrastructure fund at $7.2 billion, and is one of a large number of asset managers that have raised or are raising capital from institutional investors despite a lack of traction for President Donald Trump’s infrastructure plan.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gillian Tan in New York at gtan129@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Goldstein at agoldstein5@bloomberg.net, Daniel Taub, Christine Maurus

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