Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, which controls the Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group, with over 2,300 retail outlets, has diversified into the energy sector with the $3.1 billion purchase of Alinta Energy in Western Australia.

The Alinta takeover received the nod from Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) and Chow Tai Fook will assume ownership of the energy company by month’s end.

FIRB approval was granted despite Australia last year turning down bids from China’s State Grid Corp and Hong Kong’s Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings, owned by the city’s richest man Li Ka-shing, for electricity infrastructure company Ausgrid, on national interest grounds.

However, just some days previously, Australia gave the go-ahead Li Ka-shing’s $5.6 billion purchase of the owner of the Dampier to Bunbury gas pipeline.

Alinta chief executive Jeff Dimery welcomed the FIRB green light, saying the sale would usher in a new period of growth that would benefit consumers.

“It will give us access to a greater amount of capital at a lower cost than we’ve had in the past, which means we can be more competitive with our investments,” Dimery said.

Alinta has already announced a deal that gives it the right to develop a $600 million, 300MW wind farm at Yandin in the midwest. Dimery said the company would look to build solar and battery facilities there and in the Pilbara.

https://www.gemkonnect.com/news/chow-tai-fook-diversifies-energy-31b-australia-purchase