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UPDATE 1-Australia's Asciano gets takeover interest
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More Business & Investing News... * Potential buyers for whole firm and some assets

* Transaction seen by fiscal year end (Adds analyst comment)

By Sonali Paul

MELBOURNE, March 16 (Reuters) - Debt-laden Asciano Group Ltd (AIO.AX), Australia's top rail and ports operator, has received takeover interest for the firm as well as bids for its coal and container-port businesses, sending its shares up 44 percent on Monday.

It said it aimed to announce a transaction by the end of its current financial year.

Asciano has been in talks to sell part of its coal transport business, Pacific National, for months and recently expanded talks to include other businesses, aiming to fetch more than A$1 billion ($658 million) to help cut its A$4.6 billion in bank debt.

Asciano spokeswoman Marie Festa declined to name any of the interested parties.

The company rejected a A$2.9 billion takeover offer, at A$4.40 a share, last August from private equity groups TPG Capital [TPG.UL] and Global Infrastructure Partners, owned by Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) and General Electric (GE.N). Its shares last traded up 26 percent at A$0.795 after touching a high of A$0.905 after the announcement. The stock has been battered over the past six months on worries about how it would manage its debt burden.

Asciano's ports and rail business are considered prized assets, which analysts value at a much higher price than the company's current share price.

But based on trading in its shares over the past six months, they said the company would be lucky to get a full takeover offer at even A$1.50 a share.

However the company might have no choice if its lenders are now controlling the process, said Will Seddon, an analyst at White Funds Management, who valued the group at closer to A$8 a share in better times.

"This annoouncement today suggests to me the offers they've had for 50 percent of the coal transport business were not good enough to reduce debt to the extent lenders are pressuring them to," he said.

Another analyst said partial asset sales would be too complex.

"It would be far cleaner to sell 100 percent of container ports or any of the other businesses or the whole company," said Sondal Bensan, an analyst with BT Investment Management, which owns a small stake in Asciano.

Any offer would need approval from Asciano's chief executive, Mark Rowsthorn, who owns just under 11 percent of the group.

He acquired part of his stake at close to A$11 a share. ($1=1.520 Australian Dollar) (Reporting by Sonali Paul, Editing by Mark Bendeich)





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