The group, owned by a consumer trust, said yesterday it had agreed to buy a 66 per cent stake in NGC from Australian Gas Light for NZ$3 a share, a 2 per cent discount to NGC's closing price on Friday. The Auckland-based company will also make an offer for the remainder of the group, valued at about NZ$1.3bn. Vector, which owns Auckland's electricity network, said it would go public within the next year, listing the equivalent of 24.9 per cent of its stock. Analysts said they expected the group to raise about NZ$450m from the offering, which would value Vector at about NZ$1.8bn, and that it was likely to seek a secondary listing in Australia. The listing will be one of the largest in recent times on the New Zealand Stock Exchange, which has suffered following the takeover of several large local companies by foreign groups. It has also been hit by moves by other groups to list on foreign markets, such as Australia and Singapore. "Given recent public debate on foreign ownership, we are pleased to be able to bring another valuable infrastructure asset back under majority New Zealand ownership," Michael Stiassny, Vector's chairman, said. About 20 different groups are understood to have expressed interest in NGC, which was put up for sale in August, shortly after AGL's bid for Contact Energy, another New Zealand utility, failed. The Australasian power sector is undergoing a wave of consolidation, sparked in part by the retreat to their home markets of the US and UK utilities which invested in the sector in the 1990s. AGL said it expected net proceeds of A$760m (US$558m) from the deal. Analysts expect AGL to return most of the capital to shareholders although the company said it was also considering acquisitions. NGC - in which AGL first invested in 1992 - operates some 6,000km of gas pipelines and also has a large energy metering services business. Vector moved into the gas market and into data communications when it bought UnitedNetworks' assets in late 2002. PIN//FT