Edison Affiliate May Bid in Australia

Contact Energy Ltd. of New Zealand, whose 51%-owner Edison International is selling assets to pay $3.4 billion of debt, may bid for businesses in Australia to bolster expansion.

Rosemead-based Edison, California’s second-largest utility, is selling assets in Asia, Europe and Australia to pay debt maturing in the next 13 months. Edison hasn’t said whether it would include Contact among assets to be sold, though it is held by a unit that the company has flagged for possible sale.

“We do not intend to sell individual assets,” Edison Mission Energy Senior Vice President Bob Edgell said, declining to provide further details.

For Contact, buying assets in Australia would give it a foothold in a market with five times the population of New Zealand.

Edison’s asset sales “may create an opportunity to further Contact’s goal of building an integrated energy business in Australasia,” Contact Chairman Phil Pryke said.

Contact said it signed a long-term agreement to sell electricity in Victoria, Australia.

“This is a modest and measured move into the Australian market. We are not expecting to take over the town,” said Chief Executive Steve Barrett.

Acquiring Australian assets “is the sort of move that has to be made,” said Paul Robertshawe, who helps manage the equivalent of $520 million at Tower Asset Management in Wellington, New Zealand. “It may change and increase the company’s risk profile, but there isn’t enough information available yet.”