Competition Bureau clears Pembina Pipeline deal

CALGARY — Pembina Pipeline Corp. says the Canadian Competition Bureau has signed off on its $4.3-billion deal to buy assets from Kinder Morgan Inc.

The Calgary-based company says the receipt of the “no-action letter” from the bureau clears the final regulatory hurdle for the deal to go through.

Pembina announced in August that it would buy Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd. and the US portion of the Cochin pipeline system.

Along with the 110,000-barrel-a-day Cochin pipeline, which runs from Fort Saskatchewan, Alta. to Chicago, the deal also includes an Edmonton storage and terminal business and Vancouver Wharves, a bulk storage and export-import business.

Kinder Morgan Canada was spun off from its American parent in mid-2017 to raise money to build the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion but it sold the pipeline and its expansion project to the federal government for $4.5 billion last summer.

Pembina, which is offering shares worth $2.3 billion along with $2.05 billion in cash for the assets, expects the deal to close in December after a vote by shareholders.