Westpac Banking Corp has extended the deadline for the final bid of its infrastructure arm Hastings Funds Management. The interested bidders will submit their proposals by the middle of March.

The bidders requested a timetable extension due to difficulties in negotiations agreements with different Hastings' ports, power and pipeline assets shareholders and also due to management changes at the firm. We recently announced that Hastings Funds Management senior executive Peter Taylor is leaving the firm to join a global infrastructure manager. 

Apparently about five or six parties have been in talks to acquire the infrastructure fund manager.

According to local newspapers in Australia, there are two front runners to acquire Hastings: American pension fund manager Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, which is being advised by Morgan Stanley, and TIAA-CREF, who is being advised by JP Morgan.

Hastings is a specialist fund manager of infrastructure equity and debt dedicated to delivering reliable and consistent investment returns to a wide range of institutional and retail investors. Established in 1994, Hastings was one of Australia's first infrastructure fund managers and has a proven investment and asset management track record through its strong fiduciary culture and focus on core infrastructure equity and debt.

Hastings was fully acquired by the Westpac Group in 2005. In 2008 Hastings integrated with Westpac's Specialised Capital Group taking funds under management from more than $5 billion to approximately $7 billion.