Perth-based Alinta likely to change ... once the dust settles

Success in its bid for a merger with Australian Gas and Light Co Ltd might result in a vastly different Alinta Ltd being headquartered in Perth.
Speaking today about his proposal after purchasing 10 per cent of AGL, Alinta chief Bob Browning was unable to provide specific details about what Perth's role would be at the end of the AGL/Alinta process.
Mr Browning reminded the market that Alinta was constitutionally obliged to maintain its HQ in Western Australia but there is considerable doubt about what exactly this means.
However, the Alinta merger plan also includes a demerger afterwards, uncoupling the business into two parts: an AGL/Alinta Energy Company and an AGL/Alinta Infrastructure Company.
That provides room for one of these businesses to be housed in the current Alinta corporate entity and based in Perth, something Mr Browning confirmed as a probability.
""Probably one of the demerged entities ... I can't say yet," he said in response to a WA Business News question on that specific issue.
Just which business it would be is not quite clear.
Alinta holds significant retail and asset management operations in WA, which would fit into a AGL/Alinta Energy Company vehicle, but it also has major infrastructure assets here.
Similarly, it and AGL have assets in all classes strewn across the eastern seaboard and New Zealand.
One thing, Mr Browning has shown thus far though, is that an Australiasian business can be run from Perth.