Australia leases ports for $5.3bn to private consortium

Port Botany in New South Wales

An Australian-led private consortium has achieved this year’s largest deal in the transport sector worldwide by winning leases for two major Australian ports at a cost of $5.3 billion, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Under the banner of the NSW Ports Consortium, Industry Funds Management, along with Australian Super and QSuper, joined forces with the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority to bid on the deal for the two sea gateways in the New South Wales state.

Port Botany services natural gas, oil and petroleum shipments as well as other products while Port Kembla handles steel as well as large volumes of coal.

Originally, Australian officials projected the deal for the state-owned ports would net about $2.96 billion.

Image: J Barvia Wikimedia Commons