Asciano News

Auditor KPMG says that the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the Transport sector will supersede the levels seen in 2015 this year. In 2016, mergers and acquisitions (M & A) in the Transport sector will supersede the levels seen in 2015 by exceeding the £ 52 billion mark, according to KPMG's latest Transport Tracker. The analysis found that the value of completed M & A transactions in 2016 will pass the 2015 mark, which rose for the third consecutive year, to a total of £ 48 billion. Further transactions worth approximately £ 66 billion were announced, hitting a record level of M & A activity in the sector in 2015. ASPAC targeted acquisitions contributed to 55% of the announced transaction values ​​in 2015…

Canada's Brookfield Asset Management (BAMa.TO) is planning a fresh $6.4 billion bid for Australian port and rail firm Asciano (AIO.AX) with Qatar's sovereign fund, two sources told Reuters, widening the global battle for the haulage heavyweight. The willingness of Brookfield to raise its offer and Qatar Investment Authority's (QIA) entry as a potential co-investor underscore the immense appetite for Australian infrastructure, especially mining-exposed companies whose share prices have been battered by the commodities downturn. Asciano, which had a market capitalization of $4.3 billion a year ago, said on Tuesday it was dumping Brookfield's…

A group lead by Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, a global asset manager, had reached an agreement to buy the Australian port and railroad operator Asciano for about $8.8 billion in cash and stock, and that it was shopping for ports farther afield in a push to expand, reports NY Times. Brookfield says the acquisition of Patrick terminal will lay the foundation for a global container terminal presence, building on its facilities at Teesport, U.K., and the Port of Los Angeles. The company also hopes to leverage Patrick’s experience with automating port operations.

Kalmar, part of Cargotec, played a successful role in delivering an automated straddle carrier solution to Patrick Stevedores' during their recent automation of Port Botany container terminal in Sydney, Australia. The conversion from manual operations at Port Botany was made in only four days, setting a benchmark for the whole container terminal industry. Patrick's Port Botany is now the world's second fully-automated AutoStrad(TM) terminal, operating with 45 Kalmar AutoStrads and real time control systems. It follows the automation success of Patrick's Fisherman Island terminal in Brisbane, which was converted to an automated straddle carrier operation in 2005.

The Port of Melbourne Corporation has told DP World Australia that it wants to increase rent at the terminal by up by 800 per cent of the current amount, reports local media. It also comes as the Victorian government prepares the Port of Melbourne for sale. The move by the Victorian Government has sparked warnings of job cuts as well as economic damage to the state. The trucking industry fears it may have to carry much of the weight of the possible hefty rent hike. The port currently charges about $40 million dollars a year in rent to DP World and Asciano. It is understood that DP World has previously paid about $16 per square metre and the increase will take it to $120 per square metre.

The 5,000th Kalmar straddle carrier rolls out of the assembly unit in Stargard Szczecinski, Poland, part of an early 2014 delivery of 44 electric carriers for Asciano's Patrick Port Botany terminal in Sydney, Australia. "We are extremely proud to receive the 5,000th Kalmar straddle carrier in Sydney. The first automated Kalmar straddle carriers were used in commercial operations in 2005 in our Brisbane terminal. This fully automated container handling system was the first of its kind in the world and we are now building a similar system in our Sydney terminal.