Australian gas and electricity retailer AGL Energy is reportedly interested in acquiring some or all of the business of Queensland-based Enertrade and energy assets in New South Wales if they are privatized by the region's government, AAP News has revealed.
Although Paul Anthony, managing director of AGL Energy, said that the company was not planning to be very active this fiscal year on the mergers and acquisitions front, he did tell APP News: you can’t dictate when opportunities come on your radar screen, so if they’re there, we’re going to look at them.
Estimating the value of the retail assets of the New South Wales (NSW) government at anywhere between A$5 billion and A$8 billion, Mr Anthony said: They [the NSW government] have a very large book of energy assets – somewhere in the region of $20 billion to $30 billion worth of energy assets, as cited by AAP News.
Referring to the acquisition of assets belonging to Enertrade, which is owned by the Queensland government, Mr Anthony added: We would be interested in the assets of Enertrade. There’s an array of assets for sale there; pipelines, there’s offtakes of gas, and there’s wind assets – and yeah, we’d be interested in some, if not all, of the assets.