Contact seeks clearance to acquire Manawa

The Commerce Commission says it has received an application from Contact Energy seeking clearance to acquire up to 100% of the shares in Manawa Energy.

Contact and Manawa are both New Zealand generators and wholesalers of electricity. The commission says Contact generates electricity from two hydro dams in the South Island as well as from geothermal and thermal power stations across the North Island.

“Manawa generates electricity from 25 hydro schemes and one thermal power station and was formerly known as Trustpower, having been rebranded following the sale of Trustpower’s retail business to Mercury in 2022.”

Contact and Manawa both wholesale the electricity they generate to electricity retailers as well as to large commercial and industrial end users, says the commission.

Contact is one of several ‘gentailers’ in New Zealand because it generates and retails electricity to all types of customers. However, unlike Contact, Manawa does not directly sell electricity to any residential customers, the commission says.

The commission expects to issue a statement of preliminary issues and call for submissions on the clearance application in October.

A public version of the clearance application will be available soon on the commission’s case register.

The commission says it give clearance to a proposed merger if it is satisfied the merger is unlikely to have the effect of substantially lessening competition in a market.

Click here for more commission information.