PRESS RELEASE

Post Tongan Riot – Northpower’s Position

Whangarei electricity company Northpower Limited today announced that the provisional sale and purchase agreement for the assets of the Tongan Electricity Business would not proceed as originally planned.

The company has been actively involved in the sale process since June of this year.

Chairman Warren Moyes said that the process had been structured in a way which required several conditions to be satisfied prior to settlement, including the completion of legislative changes via the final Tongan session of Parliament for 2006.

“Northpower has been 100% aware of the challenges of a transaction such as this and has worked with many groups to structure the deal to mitigate as much risk as possible” he said.

However recent events meant the transaction as originally planned was not now an option for the company. This plan would have seen Northpower purchasing the electricity distribution and generation assets across the four main islands of Tongatapu, Vava’u, Ha’apai and Eua.

Despite the recent unrest, Northpower was keen to maintain its links with the country Moyes said.

“Now more than ever Tonga needs to know that these historical relationships have substance and there may well be a role for Northpower in the future delivery of electricity to the Tongan consumers”, he said.

The Tongan network services some 20,000 homes across 1200kms of network on the four main islands.

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