Australia's energy minister doesn't believe foreign investment laws would pose any hurdle to a Hong Kong-based company buying the ageing Liddell coal-fired power station.
The Turnbull government is pressuring Liddell's owner AGL to seriously consider a bid from Alinta Energy to buy the generator, which is the oldest in Australia and slated for closure in 2022.
So far, Alinta's interest has extended to a phone call and an email, but minister Josh Frydenberg understands the company intends to put a more formal offer to AGL by the end of April.
AGL has shown no interest in selling the plant.
Hong Kong-based Chow Tai Fook Enterprises bought Alinta last year.
In August 2016, the federal government blocked the sale of NSW electricity network Ausgrid to Hong Kong and Chinese investors, citing national security concerns.
But Mr Frydenberg said those were different circumstances because of the nature of the assets that could be sold.
"Alinta already supplies more than a million customers throughout our country," he told ABC TV on Sunday.
The company owns some transmission assets, and gas and renewable generators and recently bought the Loy Yang B power station.
"I'm not going to go into the entrails of a decision of the Foreign Investment Review Board other than to say the broad point which is that there is a difference between the nature of certain energy assets," Mr Frydenberg said.
The minister and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull have spoken over the past week with AGL management and board members to emphasise their belief selling Liddell to someone who would prolong its life by a few years would be in the public interest.
"We've made it very clear that it's in the interests of the company to consider this offer," Mr Frydenberg said on Sunday.
