Shares in Origin Energy Ltd (ASX: ORG) were 0.5% up to $9.85 on Thursday, after the company announced the sale of its metering business Acumen for $267 million.
The buyer is intelliHUB, a joint venture between private equity firm Pacific Equity Partners and Landis+Gyr, a Swiss company specialising in utilities metering and software.
Acumen will continue the ongoing deployment and management of digital meters for Origin's electricity customers, but Origin will be able to engage with other parties for the uncontracted balance of its digital metering requirements.
Origin CEO Frank Calabria commented: "We are pleased to deliver on our commitment to sell and realise value from Acumen, a business that we've grown from scratch over the past eight years to now having more than 170,000 meters under management".
Mr. Calabria described the metering agreement with Acumen as a competitive long-term contract, enhanced by Landis+Gyr's global expertise in the sector.
Digital metering permits collection of more detailed data on electricity consumption, allowing consumers to monitor usage more effectively, and suppliers to tailor their offer to customers' needs.
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