AGL Energy will keep the AGL name, but 18 months after the merger, AGL Infrastructure will be re-branded.

AGL last week appointed chief executives and chief financial officers for the two new entitities that will spring from demerger planned for April.

Paul Anthony will head AGL Energy while the company’s current chief financial officer Greg Hayes will be chief executive officer of AGL Infrastructure, effective upon the approval of the demerger by AGL's shareholders at a meeting in March.

Hayes, who will also act as interim CEO of AGL until the demerger takes place, was previously chief financial officer for Westfield Holdings (Australia and New Zealand) and executive general manager finance for Southcorp Wines.

Anthony was the founding chief executive of New Zealand’s Contact Energy when it privatised in 1995, and was more recently chief executive of British renewables business Energy Power Resources.

With the increasing focus on renewable energy, Anthony’s expertise in the field was no doubt a consideration.

AGL, which recently acquired Southern Hydro for $1.5 billion, has said it intends to expand its output of renewable energy and to pursue opportunities created by ongoing deregulation of Australian electricity markets.

AGL Infrastructure also has big plans.

Hayes told The Weekend Australian that the energy infrastructure business would boom in the next 10 years, with the probable development of the PNG Gas project, in which AGL and Petronas are investigating the onshore Australian pipeline network.

AGL Infrastructure would not follow the same business model as the several infrastructure trusts that had recnelty floated.

If the pipeline is built, AGL will operate it. AGL’s asset management operation Agility had been earning about 10% EBIT growth a year in recent years and this was likely to continue, according to Hayes.

In other appointments to the two companies, Paul Flynn, audit partner with Ernst & Young, will be interim chief financial officer for the AGL Energy, starting next month and pending a permanent appointment, and AGL general manager of finance Tiernan O’Rourke will be appointed chief financial officer of AGL Infrastructure.

The boards of the two companies were also named. Johnson will chair the energy board, accompanied by David Craig, Carolyn Hewson and Max Ould.

Charles Allen will join both boards while Ron Brierley will join Graham Reaney on the infrastructure board.

AGL chief executive Greg Martin will retire when the demerger is completed.

AGL has appointed Paul Anthony as chief executive of the energy business

while

Anthony was the founding chief executive of New Zealand’s Contact Energy when it privatised in 1995.

The demerger is planned for early April, pending a shareholder vote in March, and was announced in late October after AGL’s $1.5 billion acquisition of renewable power business Southern Hydro.

Anthony was recently chief executive of British renewables business Energy Power Resources.

Chairman Mark Johnson said “The trend towards renewables seems pretty clear”.

AGL chief finanacial officer Greg Hayes has been appointed chief executive of the infrastructure business and will also be chief executive of AGL until the demerger takes place.

Erbst & Young audit partner Paul Flynn will be interim chief fiunancial officer fo the energy business, starting next month and pending a permanent appointment.

AGL general manager of finance Tiernan O’ROurke will appointed chief financial officer of the infrastructure business.

Greg Hayes was named as chief executive of AGL infrastructure, believes the demerged AGL offers a very different business model from the plethora of investment trusts that have recently been floated.

Hayes will head the infrastructure side of the demerged energy group, including its asset management operation Agility.

Anthony was named as head of AGL Energy and told the Weekend Australian that the energy infrastructure business would boom in the next 10 years, citing the probable development of the PNG Gas project, in which AGL and Petronas are investigating the onshore Australian pipeline network, as a major plus for shareholders.

AGL will operate the pipeline if it is built .

He said Agility had been earning about 10% EBIT growth a year in recent years and this was likely to continue.

The other growth aspect currently in sight is ownership of AGL Energy’s wind power assests, including the Wattle Point wind farm on South AUstraliua’s Yorke Peninsula that was acquired with AGL’s recent purchase of Southern Hydro.