An Australian-led consortium yesterday said that it had bought a large stake in ports and rail operator Asciano Ltd, throwing into doubt a US$6.6 billion bid for the firm by a Canadian asset manager.
The alliance — which is led by Australian-listed Qube Holdings Ltd and which includes the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and investment group Global Infrastructure Partners Ltd — announced it had acquired 19.99 percent of Asciano and indicated it wanted to break up the firm.
The share raid was reportedly worth A$1.7 billion (US$1.2 billion).
The news deals a blow to Canada’s Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP’s planned takeover, which if successful would be the biggest logistics deal in Australian corporate history.
“Qube has entered into this transaction to participate in deciding the ownership of Asciano’s first-class Australian terminal assets,” Qube, a Sydney-based logistics and infrastructure firm, said in a statement.
The company said it was interested in Asciano’s container terminals business, as well as several other smaller assets, adding that when combined with Qube, they had “the potential to create significant value.”
The group also said it does “not support the current Brookfield scheme proposal and do not intend to vote in favor of it.”
Brookfield’s takeover was already under a cloud after Australia’s corporate watchdog said earlier this month that it was concerned about its effect on competition in Western Australia and Queensland.
“It leaves them [Brookfield] in a very, very hard place in terms of how or what the deal will look like — or if a deal can now even be done,” IG market strategist Evan Lucas said.
Investors gave the raid the thumbs up, with Asciano’s shares jumping 7.41 percent to A$8.12 in afternoon trade, while Qube rose 3.41 percent to A$2.28.
Lucas said Qube, which also operates port facilities in Australia, was after container terminal assets held by Asciano to strengthen its hand against major competitors such as Toll Holdings, which was recently bought by Japan Post Holdings Co.
At the same time, its Canadian partners could be interested in getting Asciano’s rail assets, which make up about two-thirds of the business.
“It does make sense that could be a real probability in that they do break up Asciano with ... the Canadians taking the rail assets and Qube taking the port assets,” Lucas said. “Qube realistically does not have the money to completely do a takeover. They are doing a reverse takeover here.”
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is due to release its final decision on the Brookfield bid on Dec. 17.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last