The announcement follows last week's resignation of chief executive Bob Browning from the company to address issues related to a $6 billion management buy-out (MBO) proposal from the chief executive and three other key executives.

Newly appointed chairman John Akehurst today said that although Browning remains a part of the company's board, he has been excluded from all consideration in Alinta of potential bids, and will have no knowledge of any approaches that the company may receive.

In response to recent market speculation, Alinta also said it had not received any offer or notice of intention to make an offer from rival Babcock & Brown.

Akehurst said the board had put in place a process, supervised by its advisers Carnegie, Wylie & Company (CWC) and JPMorgan, to manage expressions of interest in Alinta from potential bidders.

“Offers received at the conclusion of the process will be considered against alternative options, including a potential internal restructure,” Akehurst said.

“This process is designed to ensure fairness and transparency for all potential bidders, and the best outcome for Alinta shareholders.

“The board of Alinta will advise shareholders in due course of substantive developments in this process.”

Earlier this month, the Perth-based company received a $6 billion MBO proposal designed to take the company private,. Alinta said the MBO group was being advised by Macquarie Bank, which was considering participating in the approach.

But the bank is also an adviser to Alinta, setting off concerns over possible conflicts of interest.

Alinta today conditionally gave permission for Macquarie to advise the MBO group on their proposal.

“Macquarie Bank has acted as corporate advisor to Alinta on a range of matters, including several matters pending at the time of receiving the expression of interest from the MBO Group,” the utility said.

“The board of Alinta has decided to consent to Macquarie advising the MBO group on their proposal on several conditions.”

Those conditions include that all information in the bank’s possession that pertains to their advisory work for Alinta be identified and returned to the company. Macquarie must also undertake not to make any use of this information until Alinta is in a position to provide the same information to other parties.

Alinta also requested that Macquarie make sure that any of its employees who have had “significant” advisory roles for Alinta will not be permitted to advise the MBO group until Alinta can ensure that all interested parties have access to a similar level of detail regarding the company.

Macquarie has not informed the Alinta board whether it intends to provide the undertakings or still wishes to proceed with advising the MBO group.

Alinta said it would compensate the bank for prior advisory work it had provided to the company, but it would terminate all “advisory mandates” involving future work for the utility.

The company's share price over the last week has jumped $2.55, or almost 23%, on the back of the speculation that there will be a bid for the company.

Before the MBO was revealed, Alinta shares were selling at $11.21. Yesterday they closed up a further 36c at $13.776. This was a peak price since the stock was relisted three months ago following the merger with some of AGL's assets.