The Whangarei-based electricity company Northpower is looking at investing in Tonga, reported the NZPA today, August 7.

The Northpower marketing director Darren Mason confirmed to The Dominion Post newspaper that the company had registered an interest in Shoreline.

Shoreline Power is the sole generator and distributor of electricity in Tonga. Before 1998 it was owned by the Tonga Electric Power Board, then given to the Crown Prince on a 20-year lease.

Late last year, amid signs of growing popular unrest at the lack of democracy in the kingdom and rising power bills, Crown Prince Tupouto'a announced he wanted the Tongan government to buy Shoreline back and said he wanted $T60 million ($NZ46 million) for Shoreline Power.

In March the Tongan Prime Minister Hon. Dr Feleti Sevele said that he had discussed a loan of $T60 million for the government to acquire Shoreline's electricity assets with Chinese Premier Wen Jiaobao.

That was the first Tongans had heard of a possible buyback. Dr Sevele later said nothing had been decided.

The Tongan Prime Minister's Office press secretary, Lopeti Senituli, said that any sale would be a public and transparent process.

Northpower had a relationship with Tonga and used Tongan linesmen in Northland.

Northpower operates lines providing electricity to more than 49,300 customers in Whangarei and Kaipara districts, owns a small hydro-electric scheme in Northland, and runs an electricity contracting business operating in Northland, Auckland, Hamilton, Rotorua, Tauranga and Wellington. Last month it reported net profit for the year to March of $11.9 million, on operating revenue of $125.9 million, up from $105.1 million a year earlier. Nearly 70 percent of total revenue came from the contracting division.