Newcastle Port bids wait on Japanese partners in NSW - SteelGuru

Asciano Limited, Hastings Funds Management and Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management are each trying to form a consortium with Japanese companies such as Marubeni Corporation to bid for the Port of Newcastle, an asset the New South Wales state government values at USD 700 million.

Marubeni Corporation and other Japanese companies are seen as an ideal partners because more than half of the coal exported through Australia’s oldest port goes to Japan. Coal exports represent 90 per cent of total throughput tonnage at the port.

But Japanese companies are worried that a deadline on bids for the Newcastle port before May does not give them enough time to throughly examine the asset.

The NSW government wants to sell the port before May to bolster the state budget. The government wants to return to surplus by 2015.

The NSW Treasurer’s office n a statement to DataRoom said that “Suitably qualified parties have been invited to participate in a competitive bidding process for the port.”

Source – Business Spectator

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