An alliance composed of APA Group, Japan's Marubeni and Origin Energy emerged as a key candidate for the Alinta Energy bid.

Credit Suisse analysts said yesterday that Origin was in good position to acquire Alinta's southern Queensland-based Braemar power station, which could be valued at $500 million. With Origin having about $3.7 billion in cash on its balance sheet, it could also obtain Alinta's gas and electricity retail businesses in Western Australia.

Whether the consortium is willing to offer a price that would allow Alinta's lenders to regain 100 cents in the dollar on its remaining debts is a key question.

Formerly known as Babcock & Brown Power, Alinta has interests in 12 operating power stations that represent about 3000MW of installed generation capacity. The energy infrastructure company also runs the largest integrated private gas and electricity retailer with over 580,000 customers in Western Australia.

The country's biggest energy transmission company commissioned Lazard in April to study proposals, including selling of assets, to cut down the company's debt pile.

In addition to Lazard, two other advisers are acting on the company's behalf.
"The deleveraging process is being managed by the joint advisers -- Macquarie Capital Advisors Limited and UBS -- and a data room has recently been opened. Further updates on the deleveraging options will be provided in due course,'' Alinta said in an April statement.

Analysts Kynwynn Strong and Roy Gilmore of Goldman Sachs JBWere earlier reported that they did not believe Origin had bought any of Alinta's $2.6 billion of debt from its creditors.

Alinta has a market cap of only $36 million compared to its multibillion-dollar debt pile.

Origin shares were at $15.78, decreasing by 1.1 per cent yesterday.