The NSW government has declined to set a specific time for the leasing of Endeavour Energy, in the wake of it having to go back to the drawing board with the Ausgrid transaction.
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Nor was there any further talk on rumours the Endeavour Energy lease could go to a public float.
In December last year, the government said the leasing process of Endeavour Energy – which provides power to the Illawarra – would begin in the second half of 2016.
Since then, the government has had to deal with a significant hurdle, in the form of the Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison blocking the lease of Ausgrid.
A Chinese consortium had been the successful bidder, but Mr Morrison knocked it back on the grounds of national security.
This was despite members of the consortium already holding energy distribution holdings in Australia.
“Following the Federal Government’s decision in relation to the current bidders, the NSW Government will now move immediately to relaunch the transaction process for the partial lease of Ausgrid and notes the strong market interest for this valuable asset,” NSW Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian said last week.
The Ausgrid lease was the second of three such leases of power networks, following last year’s successful leasing of high voltage provider Transgrid.
When asked this week whether the government was still on track to start the Endeavour Energy lease this year, Ms Berejiklian declined to set a specific date.
“As I mentioned last week, we have moved to relaunch a transaction process for the partial lease of Ausgrid,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“It has always been our intention to proceed with the Endeavour transaction following the Ausgrid transaction.”
Earlier this year there was also the suggestion that the leasing of Endeavour Energy could go to a share market float, with Ms Berejiklian telling the media “We are watching market conditions very closely and are still open to a public float for Endeavour Energy”.
However, this week the NSW Treasurer did not respond to questions about whether the sharemarket float was still being considered by the government.