Reuters in Melbourne today reported that APT - Australia’s biggest gas pipeline investor - is in talks with NGC over the possible acquisition of a majority stake in the company.
NGC spokesman Keith FitzPatrick has declined to comment, saying any talks between NGC shareholders and other parties are not matters for comment. “It is the prerogative of shareholders to make any announcements and we are not commenting on ownership issues,” he told EnergyReview.Net from Wellington today.
However, commentators here say an APT buyout of AGL’s 66% controlling interest in NGC would make sense, given the similar industries that APT and NGC are involved with - principally gas reticulation and transmission.
Such a buyout would also free AGL - itself a 30% owner of APT - to pursue any bid for Edison Mission Energy’s 51% stake in major power player Contact Energy without the risk of raising the Commerce Commission’s hackles over matters of market dominance.
US-based EME is selling its entire international portfolio, including its 51% Contact shareholding.
Any APT purchase of NGC would be the Aussie pipeline giant's first overseas acquisition and, at NGC's current share price of NZ$2.45, would be worth around NZ$716 million.
APT is currently bidding for Epic Energy's flagship Australian pipeline but that process has dragged on for months, mostly because of disputes over gas shipping contracts with key customers, and more recently the asset was put into receivership. Fresh bids are due at the end of July.
The picture is complicated further by the fact that NGC is in possible merger talks with two energy network companies - New Plymouth-headquartered Powerco and Auckland-based Vector.
