UPDATED Nova Energy has won the tender process for failed gas retailer E-Gas, which entered voluntary liquidation last month.Nova announced today that it had purchased E-Gas' customer database.E-Gas' customer base comprises approximately 5,500 commercial
UPDATED Nova Energy has won the tender process for failed gas retailer E-Gas, which entered voluntary liquidation last month.
Nova announced today that it had purchased E-Gas' customer database.
E-Gas' customer base comprises approximately 5,500 commercial customers and 1,200 residential customers, based around the North Island.
Nova, part of the Todd Energy group, already has about 50,000 gas customers and has an 18 month trend of customer gains.
Nova spokeswoman Cressida Gates reassured customers in a release today that they would find it "business as usual".
“Nova Energy welcomes all former E-Gas customers and it is our priority to make sure the switch to us will be seamless and create no disruption to their gas supply.”
Liquidators spokesman Jeff Hart said in a release that a number of bids for the company were received during a competitive tender process.
Ian Wilson, acting chief executive of industry co-regulatory body Gas Industry Company (GIC), said that the sale would bring continuity of supply to E-Gas customers and certainty to the gas industry.
The GIC understands that the sale will assign the contracts of E-Gas customers to Nova, and that Nova may choose to move customers to its own contractual terms and conditions, subject to the notification process in the transferred contracts.
E-Gas, which had faced court action from Nova over alleged breaches of customer switching rules for a number of years, went into liquidation on October 18, owing about $4 million to secure creditor Multi Gas and about $6.9m to unsecured creditors.
BDO has said that the E-Gas collapse was caused by “difficult trading conditions and other non-recoverable increasing operational costs".
