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Midnight asset sale will yield only $3b for NSW Sean Nicholls and Brian Robins SMH December 16, 2010 NSW power sale at bargain priceThe sale of electricity assets could reap as little as $3 billion for NSW, with some saying the price should have been much higher.
THE sale of electricity assets could reap as little as $3 billion for infrastructure and services in NSW after the Treasurer, Eric Roozendaal, admitted billions of dollars would be used to build a coal mine and prop up the power generators whose electricity trading rights were sold.
In a desperate manoeuvre to ram through the sale shortly before midnight on Tuesday, Mr Roozendaal was forced to appoint members of his own sales team - Col Gellatly, Kim Yeadon and John Dermody - and a government bureaucrat, Jan McClelland, to the boards of Delta Electricity and Eraring Energy after eight directors dramatically resigned.
While Mr Gellatly, Mr Yeadon and Mr Dermody will not be paid as directors, Ms McClelland will receive $106,000 as chairwoman of Eraring.
Mr Roozendaal, who flew to New York to brief ratings agencies yesterday, announced the sale of electricity trading rights and the electricity retailers Integral Energy, Country Energy and Energy Australia for $5.3 billion. The sale of the trading rights of two remaining generators is being negotiated and is expected to be completed by February, delivering a further $3 billion, he said
It seems strange that several years previously the sale had been expected to reap $30 billion.
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