UnitedNetworks sale deadline extended

UnitedNetworks has extended the deadline for final offers for its sale after prospective bidders asked for more time to conduct due diligence.

UnitedNetworks - New Zealand's eleventh-largest company by market capitalisation - is seeking buyers for all its shares or assets because its majority shareholder, US networks company Aquila, is seeking to quit the company.

Final bids, originally due in late August, are now due on September 9, with successful bidders to be announced not long after.

"We would want to move on it pretty quick," UnitedNetworks chief executive Dan Warnock said.

The Commerce Commission last week cleared energy company NGC and unlisted lines firm Vector to buy some of the assets.

UnitedNetworks distributes electricity to about 30 per cent of New Zealand consumers, gas to more than 50 per cent, and owns and manages broadband communications networks in Auckland and Wellington.

Warnock declined to comment on the number or identities of the companies doing due diligence on UnitedNetworks.

However, local lines company Powerco has previously expressed interest.

- NZPA