Australia’s Babcock & Brown Infrastructure to sell port business, terminal stake
Australia’s Babcock & Brown Infrastructure is set to sell its UK ports business and a 50 percent stake in one of the world’s biggest coal shipping terminals as part of a $1.5 billion refinancing plan.
The Sydney-based transport and energy asset fund is expected to unveil a re-capitalization plan as early as Oct. 7 that will also involve a $735 million stock sale to help pay down its debt, according to Australian press reports.
Under the recapitalization plan, Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management reportedly will pay around $517 million for a stake in BBI, which suspended trading in its shares Sept. 30 while it finalized fund raising plans. The size of the equity shareholding was not disclosed.
Toronto-based Brookfield also will pay a further $260 million for some of BBI’s key assets, including all of the UK’s PD Ports and 50 percent of the Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal in Queensland, Australia.
BBI has been trying for over a year to sell port and energy assets which it acquired before the global economic crisis erupted to pay down some of its $7.9 billion of debt. It booked a $170 million loss earlier in the year with the sale of a 40 percent stake in Luxembourg-based Euroports, one of Europe’s biggest bulk/breakbulk stevedores handling around 70 million metric tons of cargo a year at 20 terminals in seven countries.
BBI last week rejected a rival refinancing plan from Royal Bank of Scotland acting for a group of international hedge funds saying it wasn’t superior to a proposal from a cornerstone investor, said to be Brookfield Asset Management.
PD Ports main asset is Teesports, the UK’s second largest port, which BBI acquired in 2006.
Teesport, in north east England, is primarily a bulk port handling over 50 million metric tons of cargo annually.
Teesport has a very small presence in containers with traffic of just 100,000 20-foot equivalent units in 2008, but PD Ports plans to invest around $500 million in a 1.8 million-TEU-a-year box hub to capture traffic bound for the north of the UK that is shipped through congested ports in south east England.
The first of three deep sea berths able to handle ships of up to 10,000 TEUs was slated to open in 2012, but the construction timetable has slipped because bank lending dried up during the credit crunch.
The Sydney-based transport and energy asset fund is expected to unveil a re-capitalization plan as early as Oct. 7 that will also involve a $735 million stock sale to help pay down its debt, according to Australian press reports.
Under the recapitalization plan, Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management reportedly will pay around $517 million for a stake in BBI, which suspended trading in its shares Sept. 30 while it finalized fund raising plans. The size of the equity shareholding was not disclosed.
Toronto-based Brookfield also will pay a further $260 million for some of BBI’s key assets, including all of the UK’s PD Ports and 50 percent of the Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal in Queensland, Australia.
BBI has been trying for over a year to sell port and energy assets which it acquired before the global economic crisis erupted to pay down some of its $7.9 billion of debt. It booked a $170 million loss earlier in the year with the sale of a 40 percent stake in Luxembourg-based Euroports, one of Europe’s biggest bulk/breakbulk stevedores handling around 70 million metric tons of cargo a year at 20 terminals in seven countries.
BBI last week rejected a rival refinancing plan from Royal Bank of Scotland acting for a group of international hedge funds saying it wasn’t superior to a proposal from a cornerstone investor, said to be Brookfield Asset Management.
PD Ports main asset is Teesports, the UK’s second largest port, which BBI acquired in 2006.
Teesport, in north east England, is primarily a bulk port handling over 50 million metric tons of cargo annually.
Teesport has a very small presence in containers with traffic of just 100,000 20-foot equivalent units in 2008, but PD Ports plans to invest around $500 million in a 1.8 million-TEU-a-year box hub to capture traffic bound for the north of the UK that is shipped through congested ports in south east England.
The first of three deep sea berths able to handle ships of up to 10,000 TEUs was slated to open in 2012, but the construction timetable has slipped because bank lending dried up during the credit crunch.