Page 20 - Sphere No.17 (Sep 2006)

18 SPHERE
panies of CitiPower and Powercor; ETSA Utilities in South
Australia and the CrossCity Motorway in New South Wales.
Through Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Limited
(CKI) and Hongkong Electric Holdings Limited’s (HKE) joint
majority shareholding of 51 per cent in CitiPower, Powercor
and ETSA, the Group is the biggest electricity distributor in
the country.
Speaking about CKI/HKE’s infrastructure investments in
Australia, Mr Tulloch said, “We got into Australia on the back
of privatisation in utilities, first in South Australia in 2000 and
then Victoria. Taking into account the country risk, gover-
nance, regulatory framework, legal system, the Australian in-
vestments are well within our comfort zone.”
CKI/HKE’s investment philosophy is to acquire quality as-
sets and give a wide berth for local management to operate the
companies. Mr Tulloch said, “We do not have an administrative
office in Australia. The idea is to invest in the companies and
make sure the local managers perform. Obviously there are a
lot of fly-ins, fly-outs, but the focus is on having the right man-
agement and supervising from a board level.”
The Group currently provides more than 4,000 jobs in Aus-
tralia. For the local managers, there has been the added bonus
of possible promotions and transfers within its global network
of companies. Basil Scarsella, the first chief executive of ETSA
under CKI/HKE, now lives in the northern English city of Leeds
and runs CKI/HKE’s massive investment in the United King-
dom, the Northern Gas Networks.
Others who have benefited from
this emphasis on nurturing local
talent are Shane Breheny, who has
gone from being chief financial of-
ficer of Powercor to chief financial
Business and
pleasure: Australians
have found the
right balance
between working
and playing hard.