TransGrid, the power generator business the NSW Government leased last year to investors for 99 years, has been busy in the US bond market. In what was its inaugural US private placement, it has priced $1 billion worth of bonds in four tranches through its financing arm, NSW Electricity Networks Finance. The bonds will be issued in September and are in three USD tranches and one AUD tranche; USD$200 million (AUD$267 million) September 2026s, USD$250 million (AUD$333 million) March 2029s, USD$250 million (AUD$333 million) September 2031s and AUD$75 million September 2033s. TransGrid said it immediately swapped US dollar proceeds in AUD and the bond sales will allow it to repay a $1 billion debt facility which had been due to expire in December 2017.
Since the granting of the lease in late 2015, the TransGrid business has been controlled by a consortium of investors comprising Spark Infrastructure, Hastings Funds Management, Canada’s CDPQ, Kuwait’s Wren House Infrastructure and Abu Dhabi’s Tawreed Investments.