The troubled Basslink business has been bought by APA Group for $773 million.
The acquisition includes Basslink Telecom, which currently operates the only submarine cable connection to Tasmania other than Telstra.
Basslink has been operating under receivership since November 2021, having entered voluntary administration earlier that month with a $70 million debt to the Tasmanian government.
It had been in dispute with the government over outages of its electrical interconnector in 2015 and 2016.
APA Group said that "upon completion of the acquisition, contracts will be in place with Hydro Tasmania and the State of Tasmania to provide predictable revenues whilst APA works to convert Basslink to a regulated asset under an agreed consultation process, facilitate the operations of the interconnector and institute operational improvements.”
It said the acquisition will be completed “in the coming days”.
Tasmania’s telecommunications infrastructure could get another boost in coming years, with the mooted Marinus Link cable receiving support from both the federal and Victorian state governments.
The federal government and Tasmanian government have previously funded feasibility studies into the cable; yesterday, prime minister Anthony Albanese’s office announced that Victoria had agreed to enter a three-way funding agreement for the cable.
The three governments will provide 20 percent equity funding for the estimated $3.8 billion project.
The remainder will be provided as a concessional loan from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, under the Rewiring the Nation program.
The proposed 1500MW interconnector comprises two 750MW electrical cables and a colocated fibre optic cable. The first segment is planned to enter operation in 2028.
The final investment decision for Marinus Link will be made in 2024.
