Pursuits
Australia Wine Scandal Sets Up State Power Sale: Real M&A
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A bottle of 1959 Penfolds Grange wine has opened the door to Asia’s biggest ever sale of power assets.
After failing to disclose a gift of the $2,800 vintage, New South Wales Premier Barry O’Farrell quit last month. His successor Mike Baird, a former banker at Deutsche Bank AG, says Australia’s most populous state needs to shore up infrastructure by investing in roads, railways and bridges. He may sell a state-owned electricity distribution network valued at $33 billion to help pay for them, an amount that would be triple the size of any single sale of electricity or gas assets in Asia, data compiled by Bloomberg show.