Alinta Ltd—acquisition of Australian Pipeline Trust
s. 50. Prohibition of acquisitions that would result in a substantial lessening of competition
On 27 November 2006 the ACCC accepted Alinta's offer of revised new court-enforceable undertakings about its proposal to potentially retain an interest in APT.
On 8 November 2006 the ACCC began market inquiries about a new draft undertaking. After considering comments from market participants and significant improvements to the undertaking, the ACCC accepted Alinta's undertaking, which replaces the undertaking accepted by the ACCC on 3 August 2006.
The 3 August 2006 undertaking required Alinta to divest APT and the former AGL-Agility contracts for the provision of management and operational services to the Moomba to Sydney Pipeline and the Parmelia Pipeline. The new undertaking also requires these divestments, but with one exception: in the event that APT divests its interests in the Moomba to Sydney Pipeline, Parmelia Pipeline and GasNet, Alinta will not have to divest its interest in APT.
The replacement undertaking involves different ring fencing and 'hold-separate' provisions. The 3 August undertaking did not permit Alinta to vote on any appointments to the board of APT's governing entity, APL. The replacement undertaking allows Alinta to vote on the appointment of APL board members as long as the proposed board members are fully independent of Alinta. The 3 August undertaking also contained quite general hold-separate and ring fencing provisions. The replacement undertaking contains specific and detailed hold-separate and ring fencing provisions to ensure the competitive dynamic is protected. The hold-separate and ring fencing provisions operate only until the divestment of assets out of APT or the divestment of all of APT by Alinta.
The ACCC is satisfied that all key competition issues arising from Alinta's interest in APT will be addressed by this court-enforceable undertaking.
