Back on the Road Again.......................
"BrisConnections $1.5b sale to hit the road
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The sale required months of negotiations with BrisCon's lenders to get them to agree to a standstill agreement in an effort to ensure the auction's integrity. Glenn Hunt
The $1.5 billion BrisConnections AirportLinkM7 sale will kick off next week with an investor roadshow and sale flyers to be sent to prospective buyers.
Interested parties are expected to include Spanish toll-road giants Cintra and Abertis, local player Transurban, infrastructure firms IFM Investors and Hastings Funds management, and the usual array of Canadian pension funds and Chinese money.
The sale required months of negotiations with BrisCon's lenders to get them to agree to a standstill agreement in an effort to ensure the auction's integrity. A "yes" vote was finally attained last month,
as revealed by Street Talk.
It's understood the terms of the mandate are being finalised with Macquarie Group, which owns more than one-third of the company's $3.6 billion debt pile.
Macquarie Capital and Fort Street Advisers are running the sale, while PPB Advisory is the receiver.
BrisCon is the kind of annuity-style asset that appeals to super funds, given it has reliable income streams that rise with inflation. And there are not many alternatives out there, with Queensland Motorways picking up RiverCity's Clem Jones Tunnel and Transurban securing Sydney's Cross City Tunnel over the past 18 months.
BrisCon's other lenders include hedge funds, Och-Ziff Capital Management and Solus Alternative Asset Management, ANZ Banking Group, Belgium's KBC, United Overseas Bank and UniCredit Group.
Some of the hedge funds had originally pushed back against the proposed standstill agreement, as noted by Street Talk. The funds wanted to retain all their options, including selling out along the way.
The sector's largest deal was Transurban's $7.05 billion purchase of the Queensland Motorways portfolio last April. Transurban bid alongside AustralianSuper and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority's Tawreed Investments.
UBS is advising Transurban for the AirportLink auction.
(20min delay)