Despite swimming in property sales stamp duty, NSW will be issuing just over $7 billion of debt in the 2016/2017 year. One of two state governments with a AAA rating, NSW has now released its funding requirement for the next financial year and the three years which follow. The figures don’t take into account proceeds from proposed long term leases of AusGrid and Endeavour and therefore the actual amount of new debt issued may well be vastly different.
Of the $7 billion of debt expected to be issued, $4.7 billion will be to cover existing debt which reaches maturity during the financial year and another $2.4 billion will be issued as new, additional debt. However, TCorp said the funding requirement would be “materially affected” by the finalisation of leases for AusGrid and Endeavour as these leases would trigger the repayment of outstanding loans made to the businesses by TCorp, which is the financing arm of the NSW Government. The loans are worth around $9 billion for AusGrid and just over $4 billion for Endeavour.