What’s new: A unit of State Grid Corp. of China sold its 19.9% stake in Australian electricity and gas distribution company AusNet Services Ltd. for A$1.79 billion ($1.3 billion), more than twice what it paid in 2013, State Grid said Monday.
The Chinese state-owned power company said its overseas subsidiary State Grid International Development Ltd. sold the stake for A$2.65 ($1.91) per share, a 117.2% premium from the A$1.22 per share it paid nine years ago.
The buyer was a consortium led by Canadian company Brookfield Asset Management. State Grid Corp. said it received the total proceeds.
State Grid said the Australian project is the first complete project cycle of investment, operation and sale. In the future, overseas investment will optimize the pattern and follow flexible strategies, the company said.
The background: State Grid set a global strategy in 2004 aiming to enter the overseas power transmission and distribution market through equity investments, project bidding and other means.
In June 2020, State Grid acquired the power transmission and distribution assets of Chile’s Chilquinta Energia SA for $2.23 billion in cash. Five months later, State Grid bought 96% of Chile’s largest power distribution operation, Compania General de Electricidad for about 2.57 billion euros ($3 billion).
The Chinese power giant has also invested in Europe. In 2012 it acquired a 25% stake in Portuguese energy company Redes Energéticas Nacionais for 387 million euros. In the following years it acquired 35% of Italian holding company CDP Reti for 2.1 billion euros and 24% of Greece’s ADMIE S.A. for 320 million euros.
Contact reporter Denise Jia (huijuanjia@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bob.simison@caixin.com)
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