ActewAGL has withdrawn its sponsorship of Floriade - one of Canberra's most high-profile events.
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The power provider has also dumped sponsorship of the Canberra Cavalry baseball team, the national champions.
ActewAGL chief executive Michael Costello said the changes were part of a normal review and were not about scaling back the amount of money spent on sponsorships.
Mr Costello said the utility would still spend about $1 million in the next financial year through its community sponsorship program.
''This is in line with our current community sponsorship program - 2012-13 - spending. Therefore, we're not scaling back,'' he said.
''As ActewAGL is a commercial organisation, it is a normal practice to review its sponsorship portfolio. This has been a business decision and it's appropriate to support different organisations at different times.''
ActewAGL also spends another $1 million a year on marketing its retail arm.
Mr Costello said the removal of the Floriade sponsorship money had nothing to do with Queensland outfit ERM Power Retail winning the contract to supply power to the ACT government.
Neither ActewAGL nor the government would say how much the Floriade sponsorship was worth, saying it was commercial-in-confidence.
ActewAGL was a premier sponsor of Floriade.
The Economic Development Directorate's venue and events services general manager, Neale Guthrie, said ActewAGL had branding rights at Floriade and had the Look and Learn marquee.
Mr Guthrie said the explanation given to him by Floriade was that it was scaling back its sponsorships.
''People are hunkering down and
sponsorship has been a hard get for the last five or six years,'' he said.
The loss of the ActewAGL sponsorship would not have any real impact on the operation of Floriade which had a big enough budget to sustain the loss.
Canberra Cavalry general manager Thom Carter said the loss of its ActewAGL sponsorship was a ''minor setback'' and the organisation intended to maintain a relationship with the utility in the hope of some future arrangement.
''What they told us is they are reviewing their sponsorships and looking to move in different directions,'' he said.