SYDNEY, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Australia's New South Wales state said on Wednesday it plans to sell a pension services firm managing retiree accounts worth more than A$100 billion ($72 billion), risking a political backlash which has dogged other recent privatisations.
The announcement of the planned sale of Pillar Administration came two weeks after the NSW government sold an electricity network for A$10.3 billion as it tries to raise funds for infrastructure such as new rail networks. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N13J50K
"Ongoing public ownership of Pillar is not in the interests of NSW taxpayers or Pillar's clients in this competitive market," NSW Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian said in a statement.
The pension services unit would be put to the market in a trade sale and expressions of interest would be sought next year, she said. The government did not give a target sale price.
Australian governments are trying to sell about A$100 billion of ports, roads, railways, electricity grids and business units as the economy adjusts to the end of a mining boom that has propped up tax revenue for two decades.
But the sell-off hit headwinds in October when the A$500 million sale of a port in the Northern Territory to Chinese interests drew criticism from opposition politicians and U.S. government representatives about the security implications of selling strategic assets offshore.
The backlash prompted a Senate inquiry into offshore asset sales, which reports in February.
Sydney-based Pillar sells pension fund member administration services, website services and technical support to a host of state, Commonwealth and private businesses.
($1 = 1.3850 Australian dollars)