(1) Subject to subsection ( 3), the Commonwealth may acquire, hold, dispose of or deal with shares in the Snowy Hydro Company.
(2) Shares in the Snowy Hydro Company held by the Commonwealth, being the initial issue to the Commonwealth of shares in the Company:
(a) are taken to have been fully paid up; and
(b) are taken to have been issued for valuable consideration, being the relevant percentage of the value of the existing Snowy hydro undertaking.
(3) The Commonwealth must not dispose of or transfer shares in the Snowy Hydro Company without the approval of the Parliament if the disposal or transfer of shares would result in the Commonwealth holding less than the relevant percentage of all issued shares.
(4) For the purposes of this section:
(a) the value of the existing Snowy hydro undertaking is the value determined by agreement between the Commonwealth, New South Wales and Victoria; and
(b) the relevant percentage of that value is the percentage of all issued shares in the Snowy Hydro Company that are shares initially issued to the Commonwealth.