Origin Energy Limited - acquisition of Babcock & Brown Power's Uranquinty Power Station

Summary

Origin Energy Limited announced that it has acquired the Uranquinty Power Station from Babcock and Brown Power on 4 July 2008.

Market definition

The ACCC considered the relevant markets to be:

- The wholesale supply of electricity in New South Wales,
- The supply of financial (hedge) contracts to New South Wales electricity retailers, and
- The retail supply of electricity to residential customers in New South Wales.

Competition analysis

The ACCC considered that Origin faces sufficient competitive constraints post-acquisition and that the acquisition is unlikely to cause a substantial lessening of competition in any of the relevant markets. This conclusion was informed by the following factors:

- The competitive constraint posed by the three state-owned generation businesses in NSW.
- The substantial market share of the major state-owned electricity retailers and the presence of a number of competing privately-owned electricity retailers in NSW.
- Origin's limited presence in the generation market and current absence of interest in any generation assets in NSW.