Spoilt for choice

Asciano Group has broken its silence over the long-awaited details of its asset sales, a process it calls "monetisation".

Asciano says it has received a range of proposals, all conditional and non-binding, for a range of assets. Asciano says it expects to announce a transaction by the end of the financial year, once the bidders have been whittled down to a short-list and a final contender is named.

Bidder's for the debt-laden firm, whose share price rose 33.19 per cent yesterday on rumours of a big deal, include private equity companies TPG, Blackstone and Carlyle Group. A source close to the deal told Business Spectator that US buy-out giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is also putting together a bid with a group of Melbourne-based advisers.

PSA Singapore Terminals, Dubai Ports World, the Future Fund and Morgan Stanley Infrastructure are also believed to be looking to buy the company's Patrick container ports division, with terminals at Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Fremantle as well as service facilities across the country.

The due diligence process for the various players will have been a boon to the number crunchers at a range of investment banks. While Simon Perrott from RBS (i.e. ABN Amro) and Andrew Leyden, John Wylie and Trent Lisle from Lazard Carnegie Wylie are advising Asciano on the sales process.

Many of these banks have had dealings with Asciano in the past, giving them a certain in-house expertise on the stricken firm.

Goldman Sachs JBWere was tapped last year to underwrite a $100 million share purchase plan following the advice it earlier gave on Asciano's $700 million sale of its stake in Brambles. Macquarie Capital had earlier advised on Asciano's abortive attempt to merge with Brambles in 2007 and was the firm's broker of choice before a silver doughnut team led by Robin Bishop and Stuart Nash joined the barbarians at the gate, advising TPG on a $4.40 per share takeover attempt in August 2008.

A JPMorgan team led by Grant Dempsey in turn came on board to advise Asciano on its defence. Dempsey was part of the Citigroup team when former Asciano parent Toll first made its bid for Patrick Corporation.

JPMorgan is now apparently working alongside Citi and Deutsche Bank advising a Carlyle Group consortium. Macquarie, Goldman Sachs JBWere and Credit Suisse are meanwhile believed to be advising TPG.

While Morgan Stanley is advising its namesake infrastructure fund, Merrill Lynch is said to be advising the Future Fund and UBS – which advised Toll on the initial Asciano spin-out – is thought to now be giving one of the other contenders a helping hand.

Once the deal is over, this is one fee-earning project that will be sorely missed.

Mark Carnegie and John Wylie, principals of the corporate advisory and private equity firm Lazard Carnegie Wylie, are investors in Business Spectator.