AGL, Origin eye Qld retail privatisation


Australia's top two energy retailers are positioning themselves to take advantage of the $1 billion sale of Queensland's retail power assets.
The Australian Gas Light Company Ltd (AGL) and Origin Energy Ltd are among a small number of shortlisted parties in the running for the assets.
AGL managing director Paul Anthony said Queensland was an attractive market for the group.
"I think we're ideally positioned there," he told journalists after addressing an investment conference in New York.
The government plans to sell Sun Retail (formerly Energex Retail), the competitive parts of Ergon Energy retail and the Allgas distribution network before Christmas.
To improve competition post-sale, Sun Retail's customer base will be separated, with about 800,000 customers kept with Sun Retail and 400,000 transferred to the Ergon Energy sale package.
Origin Energy managing director Grant King said the real opportunity was the introduction of full retail contestability - allowing customers to choose who they buy their power from - on July 1, 2007.
"To us the more important thing is that the market is open for contestability," he said.
"I think the Queensland government is making a very sensible decision. If they're opening the market to contestability the value of their business is probably going to be competed away so they might as well sell up from which is a very sensible decision."
Mr Anthony told the Merrill Lynch Australia investment conference in New York that AGL saw the potential for growth across both gas and electricity in the retail sector, particularly as governments liberalised the markets.
"Who knows at some stage NSW may sell their retail bases as well and we'd be ideally positioned to look at that as well," he said.
AGL will pick up customers in Western Australia as part of its $6.8 billion merger deal with WA utility Alinta Ltd.
Mr Anthony said AGL hoped to convert a good proportion of Alinta's gas customers to gas and electricity customers.