Duke Energy Corp. on Sunday said it has agreed to sell its Asia-Pacific energy assets to Australia's Alinta Ltd. for $1.24 billion (A$1.69 billion), as part of the U.S. power company's plan to raise money and restore the health of its balance sheet.
The Charlotte, North Carolina-based company said the sale is expected to close in the second quarter and includes all of its assets in Australia and New Zealand.
"In January, we announced a strategy to concentrate our international investment in the Americas," Duke's Chairman and Chief Executive Paul Anderson said in a statement.
"The sale will go a long way towards meeting our asset divestiture target for 2004, and will further strengthen the Duke Energy balance sheet."
The Duke assets are part of more than A$10 billion of generators and pipelines up for grabs in Australia as several U.S. companies retreat from overseas investments after the collapse of energy trader Enron Corp.
The assets include about 2,300 km (1,380 miles) of pipelines and around 450 megawatts of thermal power generation in Australia and New Zealand.
