In January 1995, the
vertical monopolist energy supplier, the
State Energy Commission of Western Australia, was disaggregated into separate gas and electricity corporations, leading to the formation of AlintaGas. The word Alinta is derived from the word for flame in a traditional language of the
Yorta Yorta nation from
Victoria. On 13 July 2000 legislation was passed by the
Parliament of Western Australia for the sale of AlintaGas, which listed on the
Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on 17 October 2000. On 8 May 2003 AlintaGas Limited changed its name to Alinta Limited. On 23 July 2003 through a series of complicated transactions involving Alinta,
Aquila Energy,
United Energy and
AMP Henderson Global, Alinta became the operator, manager and part owner of regulated energy assets in Western Australia and Victoria. In April 2004 Alinta acquired
Duke Energy's assets in Australia and New Zealand. In October 2004 a consortium of
Alcoa, Alinta and
DUET acquired the
Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline from
Epic Energy. On 4 October 2005 Alinta publicly floated the pipelines and power stations it acquired from Duke Energy International into a separate investment vehicle, Alinta Infrastructure Holdings (AIH) which also traded on the ASX. In October 2006 Alinta, through Alinta IH Pty Ltd (Alinta IHPL), made an offer to buy out the 80% of the shareholding in AIH that it did not already own. By 11 January 2007 Alinta had acquired 91.4%, and moved to compulsorily acquire the remainder. Alinta acquired infrastructure assets and the Agility business from
AGL through a combination of merger and demerger transactions on 25 October 2006. On 9 January 2007 Alinta announced that senior executives and the Chairman were working on a
management buyout proposal, with
Macquarie Bank as their advisor. As a result, the
chief executive officer Bob Browning resigned on 11 January 2007, and the company was clearly for sale to the highest bidder. Alinta was acquired on 31 August 2007 by a consortium comprising
Singapore Power International, the largest utility company in Singapore, and Australia's second-largest investment bank,
Babcock & Brown Infrastructure and
Babcock & Brown Power with a bid of A$13.9 billion, beating out a rival bid by Macquarie Bank. Alinta was delisted from the Australian Securities Exchange in September 2007. Alinta was split into the following businesses: • Alinta, retaining the Western Australian gas retail business. Alinta Limited for a time was known as Westnet Infrastructure Group Limited. In 2017, This business now trading as Alinta Energy was acquired by Hong Kong–based
Chow Tai Fook Enterprises. • WestNet Energy, which provides asset management, operational, construction and maintenance services to the owners of the AlintaGas Networks gas distribution system in Western Australia; and to the owners of the Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline. It is also a major contractor in overhead and underground electricity cabling. • Alinta LGA, renamed to
Jemena on 4 August 2008, which manages energy infrastructure assets in the eastern states of Australia including
Queensland and
New South Wales, and gas pipelines and gas and electricity distribution networks in Victoria. Later, ownership of Jemena passed to Singapore Power International, and its name was changed to SPI (Australia) Assets Pty Ltd. In 2014, State Grid Corporation of China acquired a 60% stake in Jemena, and the company's name was changed to SGSP (Australia) Assets Pty Ltd (SGSPAA). The company continues to trade as Jemena. Since the restructuring Alinta has continued to grow and diversify to become one of Australia's largest energy companies. Alinta has been a key investor in Australia's renewable energy projects and plans to build the world's largest offshore wind farm, a 50 MW solar thermal plant at
Port Augusta in
South Australia in 2013. ==References==