New South Wales is just one Australian state planning to sell infrastructure assets to private sector interests in coming years.
The government has already flagged the sale of 49% of its electricity distribution assets via a long-term lease structure in a deal worth an estimated A$40 billion (US$33 billion).
NSW Treasurer Andrew Constance and two executives from National Australia Bank’s capital markets team joined FinanceAsia to talk about the government’s asset recycling programme and how institutional funds will be encouraged to invest.
Constance, who also holds the post of Minister for Industrial Relations, outlined a list of new and existing projects and talked about the challenge of sequencing asset sales with other states in order to optimise value.
NAB’s executive general manager of capital financing, Steve Lambert, and the bank’s head of energy, utilities and infrastructure, Fiona McIntyre, talked about where the funding will come from to create competitive tension for the assets.
Lambert and McIntyre speculated on how the capital markets might innovate to stretch to the necessary volumes, and spoke about the impact of a recent determination from the Australian Energy Regulator on the sale of electricity distribution assets.
In addition, we asked the live registered audience about their current exposure to Australian infrastructure assets and what type of investments they are likely to make in the future.
To listen to the conversation, please click here. If you are having difficulty accessing this site, the URL is http://www.media-server.com/m/p/vvoutx3y.
