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A Pengrowth Energy Corp. pipeline in Alberta.

Debt-heavy Pengrowth Energy Corp. is in talks to sell approximately $500-million in Alberta oil and gas assets to Infor Acquisition Corp., the latest sign of financial companies stepping up for energy assets, according to people familiar with the matter.

Pengrowth has $1.6-billion of debt that includes a $400-million (U.S.) loan coming due in July. While the Calgary-based company has enough cash on hand to pay those bills, it is expanding its oil sands operations and has been attempting to raise money by selling two holdings in central Alberta for more than a year.

Sources familiar with both companies say Pengrowth is close to a transaction that would see all or part of its light-oil and natural-gas properties sold to Toronto-based Infor, a special-purpose acquisition corporation or SPAC. Infor raised $230-million (Canadian) and needs to invest that capital by May, or return it to shareholders. Infor also has close ties to a number of large institutional investors, and could raise additional funds for an acquisition.

Pengrowth and Infor executives declined to comment, and sources said the deal is not complete and could come undone.

One of Pengrowth's assets, the Swan Hill light-oil property, is being sold by BMO Nesbitt Burns and disclosure around the process show that the investment bank has shut down bidding.

Pengrowth is one of many energy companies that have used asset sales to raise cash in the wake of a sharp and unexpected decline in oil and gas prices two years ago. There were $14-billion of property sales from Canadian companies in 2016, well above the level seen the previous year, according to statistics from Sayer Energy Advisors, and the company expects M&A activity to remain "robust" this year.

Pengrowth is focusing on expanding its oil sands and natural-gas properties, which require $125-million of capital spending this year, and raised $250-million in December by selling a royalty interest in its oil sands assets. That sale took place against a backdrop of rising energy prices, conditions that continue to exist as Pengrowth considers additional asset sales.

Private equity players such as Brookfield Business Partners LP, Warburg Pincus LLC and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board have stepped up as buyers of oil and gas assets. In the U.S. market, SPACs have acquired several significant energy companies.

SPACs had their debut in Canada two years ago when six companies raised a total of $1-billion. Since then, several Canadian SPACs have struggled to make acquisitions. Last year, Infor attempted to acquire a stake in finance company ECN Capital Corp. but the two companies opted to call off the deal in October.

If Infor does strike a deal with Pengrowth, it would be the first SPAC transaction in the Canadian oil patch. Infor's backers include Brian Gibson, a familiar face in the oil patch as a former senior executive at Alberta Investment Management Corp.

In the U.S. market, the first SPAC was launched in 2003 and since then, 213 SPACs have raised $34.4-billion (U.S.). Information service SPAC Analytics found that over the past 14 years, two out of three SPACs managed to get an acquisition done before time ran out and the SPAC had to return its cash.

Fort Hills will be completed in late 2017. It cost $15.1-billion and will produce 180,000 barrels of bitumen per day when production begins

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