Pipeline owner APA Group has highlighted its all-Australian credentials after lobbing a rival bid for AusNet Services that trumps the $9.6 billion cash offer from Canada’s Brookfield and has sparked a bidding war for the owner of Victoria’s electricity transmission system.

But the major gas transporter has so far been left frustrated after failing to derail the eight-week exclusive due diligence period that AusNet target granted to Brookfield and which started on Tuesday.