AUSTRALIA APPROVES ALINTA TAKEOVER BID
Chow Tai Fook to pay investors including buyout firm TPG Capital more than A$4b
MELBOURNE
The deal has been approved by the Foreign Investment Review Board and is subject to strict conditions, said a spokesman for Treasurer Scott Morrison, without elaborating on the details.
Morrison decides on approvals for overseas investors on advice from the investment board.
Chow Tai Fook in March agreed to pay investors, including buyout firm TPG Capital, more than A$4 billion (RM13.2 billion) for Alinta, said sources.
Alinta’s assets in Australia span nationwide energy retailing through power generation for industrial customers.
The approval was reported earlier by the Australian Financial Review, which didn’t say where it got the information.
The transaction follows in the path of Li Ka-shing’s Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Ltd, which on Friday won approval for a A$7.4 billion takeover of Australian power provider Duet Group.
Li-controlled companies already own stakes in Australian assets, including SA Power Networks, Powercor Australia and Australian Gas Networks.
Australian utilities, such as Alinta and Duet, have attracted foreign interest because of steady cash flows from their gas and electricity assets.
The country’s power companies are overseen by national and state regulators, which decide how much network operators can charge. Bloomberg