NGC shareholders vote in favour of power plant sales

By NZPA

Monday 3rd March 2003

NGC shareholders have approved the sale of two power stations to Contact Energy and TrustPower.

A special shareholder meeting voted in favour today of selling the Taranaki Combined Cycle station to Contact for $500 million, and the Cobb hydro station northwest of Nelson to TrustPower for $92.5 million.

NGC said in a statement it was discussing settlement arrangements with Contact and TrustPower.

The sales are conditional on clearance from the Commerce Commission.

TCC is a four year-old, 357 megawatt (Mw) plant situated near Stratford. It will complement Contact's existing thermal generation plants at Otahuhu-B (380Mw), Otahuhu-A (40Mw), New Plymouth (400Mw), and Te Rapa (44Mw).

NGC, majority-owned by the Australian Gas Light Company, has been extracting itself from the energy generation and retail business since suffering a huge loss in the dry winter of 2001.

The company has turned its focus to its core businesses of natural gas and LPG transportation, sales, and energy metering.

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