THE Queensland government will pocket more than $1.2 billion after agreeing to sell energy retailer Powerdirect to AGL Energy.
Powerdirect Australia is the former competitive retailing arm of distributor Ergon Energy and has more than 396,000 customers in Queensland and 35,000 interstate.
The deal follows the earlier sale of another government-owned electricity retailer, Sun Retail, to Origin Energy and gas provider Sun Gas to AGL.
Premier Peter Beattie said the total price paid for the sale of the energy retailers was more than $3 billion, which will be pumped into the government's Queensland Future Growth Fund.
He said the money would be used to fund infrastructure, including roads and water.
"In essence, what this means is a significant amount of money to invest in infrastructure in Queensland," Mr Beattie said.
AAP