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Australian-led consortium wins lucrative electricity asset

Xinhua, November 25, 2015 Adjust font size:

An Australian led consortium of investment funds has won the bid for the nation's largest state-owned asset sale worth over 10 billion Australian dollars,

The privatisation of the state-owned asset TransGrid that runs the New South Wales (NSW) electricity grid had been under intense political scrutiny.

NSW Premier Mike Baird told reporters on Wednesday all bidders had received approval from "all authorities and agencies" prior to lodging their bids, dismissing the current political wrangling over other state-owned assets around Australia.

The winner had "clearly the strongest bid" in terms of price, risk and terms and conditions, Baird said, bringing 10.258 billion Australian dollars into state coffers.

An Australian-led investment consortium of Hastings, owned by Westpac bank, ASX listed Spark Infrastructure, a Canadian pension fund, Abu Dhabi-based investment fund and a subsidiary of the Kuwait Investment Authority, came out victorious.

Spark's shares remain in a trading halt.

The NSW government will also maintain significant influence over the assets as the lessor and other regulatory frameworks including the National Electricity Market rules.

The next business to be offered in the lucrative "poles and wires" privatization, electricity distributor AusGrid, is a potential consolation prize for the losing bidders when expressions of interest opened on Tuesday. Endit