It is thought the banking syndicate, which is owed $1.85 billion, has been put off by the furore surrounding the sale of the “Epic Rest” assets, which is all assets not including the Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline.
This bundle of pipeline and power generation assets was recently sold to 11% Epic shareholder, Hastings Funds Management, in a deal which allegedly contained more conditions and less favourable terms than bids offered by rivals Australian Pipeline Trust, among others. APT said it was considering legal action.
All of Epic’s three major customers, Alcoa, Alinta and Western Power, have been prevaricating signing new 20 year gas transportation contracts rather than waiting on a determination on access charges by the WA regulator, Economic Regulation Authority.
However it is believed Epic has tied these negotiations too closely to the DBNGP sales process for the three customers.
It is thought there are only two firm bids for the DBNGP – a $1.9bn bid from the Envestra-CKI consortium and a $1.7bn offer from the team of Prime Infrastructure and Babcock and Brown.
If the bankers call in the receivers, it would give them more control and give a greater transparency over the sales process and avoid a possible repeat of the Epic Rest furore.
