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Babcock and Brown Infrastructure (BBI) said the sale of a larger than previously announced stake in Powerco will go through today.
The distressed Australian infrastructure investor signalled this week that there "were issues" in bringing the deal to a conclusion.
On November 4 last year, BBI said it was selling a 50 percent stake in Powerco to Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) for $400m. It is QIC's first investment in New Zealand.
But the deal has been rejigged. QIC has agreed to purchase a 58 percent stake for $423m, rather than the 50 percent originally agreed.
Powerco is the nation's second largest electricity and gas distribution business with more than 400,000 customers across 39,000sq km in the North Island. BBI purchased 100 percent of it in 2004.
BBI had to get its lenders to release 58 percent of Powerco from their security package.
To get them to agree BBI had to renegotiate its debt facilities.
"Closing the Powerco transaction is the first step of our objective of reducing corporate debt through two methods: the deferral of distributions and through selling stakes of various assets," said managing director Jeff Kendrew.
-NZPA
