WASHINGTON: IFM Investors and its consortium partners Macquarie and Dutch asset manager APG will likely face a new challenge in their imminent bid for the Port of Melbourne from stevedores, tenants and other users of the facility put on the market by the Victorian government with a price tag of up to $6 billion. A day after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission delayed a decision on the purchase of the port by that group, this column can reveal several major operators have raised concerns in submissions to the watchdog.
It is unclear which of the port users — which include DP World, Australian Container Freight Services and Patrick Ports — have submitted individually. Sources close to the deal said there was a consensus that should the IFM consortium be successful, several restrictions would be necessary to maintain competitive tension with other facilities along the east coast. Those include undertakings that the ports be operated with a “ring fence” around them, with rules around disclosures and of information sharing between the different facilities.
IFM, which could take a half stake in the Port of Melbourne if it is successful, already has a one-third stake in Port Botany in Sydney and a 27 per cent holding in the Port of Brisbane. Formal bids for the Port of Melbourne are due by late August, with a consortium led by the QIC also requesting clearance from the ACCC.
