Australian pension fund Rest Super is kicking off a sale of its minority stake in local electricity distribution firm Endeavour Energy, according to people familiar with the matter.
(Bloomberg) — Australian pension fund Rest Super is kicking off a sale of its minority stake in local electricity distribution firm Endeavour Energy, according to people familiar with the matter.
The fund plans to send out information memoranda as soon as this week, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing that matter as they were not authorized to speak publicly. Rest Super is seeking as much as A$1 billion ($694 million) for its 12.6% stake in the power company, they said. Interested bidders are expected to provide indicative offers in about four weeks, one of the people said.
Deliberations are ongoing and Rest Super could still change the timeline of the planned stake sale and even keep the asset for longer, the people said. A representative for the pension fund declined to comment, while a representative for Endeavour Energy didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Rest Super was part of the consortium led by Macquarie Group Ltd.’s infrastructure arm that acquired a 99-year lease for a 50.4% stake in Endeavour Energy in a A$7.6 billion deal in 2017. British Columbia Investment Management and Qatar Investment Authority were also part of the buying group. The government of New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, sold the majority stake as part of a series of asset disposals to shore up state finances.
The potential Endeavour Energy stake sale comes after a long run of dealmaking in Australian infrastructure where electricity providers especially have been a focus.
In 2021, Dutch pension fund APG Asset Management agreed to pay more than A$2.2 billion to pension fund AustralianSuper Pty for a stake in Australia’s largest power distributor Ausgrid, while KKR & Co. led a A$5.2 billion consortium of pensions to take Spark Infrastructure Group private. Last year, Brookfield Asset Management took electricity and gas distributor AusNet Services Ltd. private in a A$18.4 billion deal.
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