Brookfield Infrastructure Partners(BIP-UN.TO, BIP) edged higher in after-hours New York trade pn Friday as it agreed sell its remaining 25% interest in its U.S. natural-gas pipeline to one of the line's existing owners.

A statement noted this sale represents a complete exit of the business, generating total proceeds of over US$1.7 billion, crystalizing an "attractive" 18% Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and a three times multiple of capital on its investment since its recapitalization in 2015.

It said the transaction, when combined with the financing completed in advance of the sale, will have generated total proceeds of over $900 million in the last 18 months. The proceeds received from the sale represents a 1.8 times multiple of its current carrying value.

Friday's statement said: "We initially acquired a 27% stake in the pipeline through the purchase of Babcock & Brown Infrastructure. In 2015, we opportunistically increased our ownership to 50%, partnering with another operator to buy out a consortium of minority owners, successfully recapitalizing the business. During our ownership, we executed our business plans to create value primarily through organic growth. This included pipeline expansions into key regions to connect natural gas supply to utility providers and LNG export facilities, as well as upgrades across the existing pipeline network to increase capacity."

In further asset sale updates, Brookfield Infrastructure said it has completed the first step in the stabilized data-center monetization strategy, signing an agreement to sell a 30% interest in a 244-megawatt portfolio of de-risked and operating sites in Europe to a financial sponsor for approximately US$460 million in proceeds, approximately $90 million net to Brookfield. The company is also progressing the sale of an additional 60% stake in the portfolio, and hopes to sign off on that in coming months.

"Securing these two transactions adds to the excellent start we have had to the year. We have now locked in over $700 million in proceeds from asset sales since the beginning of the year, which is expected to increase to nearly $900 million shortly following the sell down of the additional stake in our European data center portfolio," said chief executive Sam Pollock. "This marks meaningful progress towards our asset monetization goal of $5 to $6 billion over the next two years, and we continue to experience strong activity levels and buyer interest in our in-progress capital recycling initiatives, with more to come."

Brookfield Infrastructure shares were last seen up US$0.02 to US$28.72 after hours. Its units closed up $0.04 to $41.20 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.