The NSW government will net nearly $3 billion after finalising the sale of the final piece of the state's "poles and wires" electricity assets.
The sale of Endeavour Energy to a consortium led by Macquarie Group's infrastructure arm is the last chapter in a controversial three-stage privatisation process the state government took to the last election.
Macquarie Infrastructure and partners at AMP Capital, and investors from Qatar and Canada, will pay $7.6 billion for a controlling, 50.4 per cent stake in the company, which distributes electricity to western Sydney and the Illawarra region. Net of debt, the sale will deliver $2.9 billion to fund infrastructure.
Together with the previously completed sales of Transgrid and Ausgrid the sales will deliver net proceeds of $23 billion to the state's coffers, a figure which far exceeds the government's initial expectations.
"This is a great day for NSW," said Premier Gladys Berejiklian. "You gave us your trust. We're a government who delivered on what we said we would and more.
"It's more rail, roads, schools and hospitals".
The sales have generated another $10 billion in gross proceeds, used to pay off assets' debts.
Selling off the assets to fund major infrastructure projects was the state government's centrepiece policy at the 2015 state election. Former Premier Mike Baird had promised a windfall of up to $15 billion, which has been significantly exceeded.
The government successfully prosecuted the policy despite considerable community angst about private ownership.
Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said the state government was on track to invest $73 billion in infrastructure over the next four years, as much, he said, as the federal government had committed over the next decade.
The money generated by the sales will secure funding for the Restart NSW infrastructure fund.
Funded projects include the Sydney Metro project and Parramatta Light Rail and $1b in school upgrades.
More than $2 billion further was expected to be delivered by a federal government scheme to encourage asset privatisations by state governments, the Treasurer said.
Canada's British Columbia Investment Management Corporation and the Qatar Investment Authority had significant stakes in the Macquarie consortium, which has been given the green light by the federal consumer watchdog and the Foreign Investment Review Board.
The company will be leased for 99 years under the terms of the deal.