Australia has sold the country’s biggest electricity distribution network to an “all-Australian bid” just two months after it controversially blocked companies from China and Hong Kong from bidding on national security grounds. 

Thursday’s A$16.1bn sale of Ausgrid by the New South Wales government to two domestic pension funds, IFM Investors and Australian Super, took place following an unsolicited bid and without a new public tender. Canadian pension funds and some local investors that had expressed an interest in Ausgrid have been sidelined by the quick sale.   

Mike Baird, New South Wales’ premier, said there was not enough clarity regarding national foreign investment rules to consider foreign bidders for Ausgrid following the earlier knockback of State Grid Corporation and Hong Kong-based Cheung Kong Infrastructure.