Who is Rockpoint Gas Storage?
Rockpoint Gas Storage is described in the report as North America's largest independent pure-play natural gas storage provider, controlling roughly 280 Bcf of working capacity. Its depleted-reservoir facilities sit in two markets: the Countess and Suffield sites on Alberta's AECO hub (154 Bcf) and the Wild Goose and Lodi assets in California (106 Bcf). Brookfield Infrastructure took the company public on the Toronto Stock Exchange in October 2025; it is the repackaged successor to Niska Gas Storage, with Tobias McKenna as CEO since 2020.
Activ8 Classification
Business Model
Per the report, Rockpoint earns money two ways. Roughly 45% of its margin is anchored by three-to-five-year take-or-pay contracts under which utilities pay for storage capacity whether or not they use it. The balance comes from "optimization" — trading gas for the company's own account, buying when the summer-to-winter price spread widens and selling into seasonal spikes — together with shorter-term seasonal storage. Management markets the business as a "predictable and growing" YieldCo, stressing the long-term contracts and a newer pitch that AI-driven, gas-fired power demand makes its high-deliverability storage more valuable. Dalrymple counters that the volatile optimization and short-term segments, not stable contracts, drove most of the recent profit growth.
Dalrymple Finance's Key Allegations
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01
The dollar value of newly signed contracts fell roughly 41% at the California facilities and 25% in Alberta in fiscal 2026, after two prior years of growth. Dalrymple reads the drop as evidence that customers will no longer contract storage at recent volumes and prices — the same contract-renewal risk it says undid Niska — and argues the "stable YieldCo" thesis is already cracking.
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02
The report argues the IPO pitch of "predictable and growing EBITDA" rests on a deliberately short, favorable data window. Including fiscal 2023 would show revenue falling about 34% and EBITDA dropping sharply, and 18 years of predecessor financials reveal a volatile, commodity-spread-driven model with no durable structural shift in the business.
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Dalrymple alleges Brookfield has pulled roughly $2.7B out of Rockpoint through a debt-funded dividend recapitalization, pre- and post-IPO distributions, and IPO and secondary share sales. With its remaining stake not yet eligible for sale, Brookfield is said to have pledged those Class B shares to the Bank of Montreal as collateral for a margin loan — effectively monetizing its entire position within seven months of listing.
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The report contends Rockpoint's operating companies paid about ten times more to Brookfield than to public shareholders — roughly $250.7M versus $23.4M in the second half of fiscal 2026 — at a 175% payout of distributable cash flow and with no explanatory footnote. It questions how CEO Tobias McKenna can represent public holders while also heading the Brookfield-controlled entity that sets those distributions.
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05
Dalrymple frames the offering as a rerun of Brookfield's 2018 GrafTech IPO, which used a similar "structural shift has tamed the cycle" pitch; Brookfield booked a 74% IRR while IPO buyers ultimately lost about 95%. Applying a cyclically adjusted 6–8x EBITDA multiple, the report sets a target of roughly C$9.54–16.95 per share, implying 44% to 68% downside.
Key Charts
After two years of growth, the dollar value of contracts signed in California fell about 41% year over year. Dalrymple attributes the decline to weaker demand at recent prices — the contract-renewal risk it views as the first sign the bull thesis is breaking.
Dalrymple estimates Brookfield received roughly ten times the distributions paid to public shareholders over the period — well beyond its 60% ownership stake — at a 175% payout of distributable cash flow and with no footnote explanation.
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