APA Group chairman Michael Fraser said the federal government’s push forward on a second Victoria-Tasmania power cable does not harm the business case for the gas pipeline owner’s $773 million acquisition of Basslink, and signalled APA may seek some role in the proposed new asset.

Mr Fraser said APA had always assumed Marinus Link would be built, and the question of whether the government backing of the project was problematic depended on the details of how it would be owned, run and regulated.