Abu Dhabi Investment Authority’s (ADIA) Tawreed Investments has officially stopped the sale of its 19.9% stake in New South Wales electricity transmission operator Transgrid, two sources said.

One of the sources said the decision was made in the past week, while the other said it is still open to approaches but is not in any rush to sell if no credible offers emerge.

Barrenjoey was advising ADIA on the sale, estimated at about AUD 2bn (USD 1.3bn).

Since September, ADIA, advised by JP Morgan, has been looking at raising up to AUD 5bn in holdco financing across its infrastructure assets in Australia, which should ease pressure to sell, sources said previously.

The aim of this is to achieve cheaper debt financing for its assets. This should improve the return on investment in Transgrid, which has very high capital demands as it spends billions of dollars on building new grid connections in NSW to support its decarbonisation, as reported.

The twin pressures of the energy transition construction costs and regulators reducing how much utilities like Transgrid can pass the costs onto consumers has already contributed to two of Transgrid’s five owners partially selling their stakes in the utility this year.

Utilities Trust of Australia (UTA), managed by Morrison, sold a 9.995% stake to Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, retaining 10.5%, according to the UTA website. OMERS sold 9.995% to the Australian sovereign wealth fund, the Future Fund, retaining 9.995%.

Local media had pointed to Dutch fund APG as possibly the only external bidder for the ADIA stake, as well as existing Transgrid investors, which have pre-empt rights.

Transgrid shareholders are now: La Caisse, ADIA’s Tawreed, Spark Infrastructure, UTA, Future Fund and OMERS, according to Infralogic data.

The NSW government privatised Transgrid in 2015 via a 99-year lease.

A spokesperson for ADIA declined to comment. APG did not respond to a request for comment.