Some Brookfield' background

SYDNEY--Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. has approached Australian rail-and-port operator Asciano Ltd. in what could become one of the biggest foreign takeovers in the nation's history.
The tentative cash-and-share offer is worth 9.05 Australian dollars (US$6.98) a share, valuing the Australian company at roughly 8.83 billion Australian dollars (US$6.81 billion). Asciano, which handles nearly half of all container traffic entering or leaving Australia, disclosed Brookfield's proposal on Wednesday, saying it was initially made on Friday.
World-wide, companies are merging at a pace unmatched in nearly a decade. Australian infrastructure assets are attracting particular interest from investors eager to exploit the world's sharpening focus on building transport networks to facilitate trade--driven by such developments as the creation of an Asian infrastructure bank.
The takeover would be one of Asia's biggest this year and the largest foreign acquisition in Australia since SABMiller PLC bought Foster's Group in 2011 for A$10 billion, according to Dealogic. Right now Australia's biggest deal of 2015 is the A$6.49 billion purchase of Toll Holdings Ltd., also a logistics company, by Japan Post.
Asciano itself was created in 2007 when it was spun out of Toll Holdings.
Australian states have been a driving force behind the country's sale of infrastructure assets. In April last year, the government of New South Wales sold a 99-year lease on Newcastle Port, the world's largest coal-export terminal, for A$1.75 billion to Chinese and local buyers. That same month, Queensland Motorways also attracted strong international bidding--fetching A$7.1 billion for the Queensland government.
Infrastructure opportunities coming up include the lease of the Port of Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory and the auction of power assets in New South Wales, Australia's most populous state.
"There is plenty of demand," said Tim Foy, infrastructure managing director at RBC Capital Markets's investment-banking arm in Sydney. Australian infrastructure assets tend to attract a premium from foreign investors, he said, because of their quality and the country's transparent regulatory environment--not to mention the country's weak currency, down 18% against the U.S. dollar over the past year.