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The Victorian Government, Australia, has recently received bids from three consortia for the 50-year Port of Melbourne lease contract, which includes Australia’s biggest shipping container terminal.

The Government of Victoria launched the formal transaction process for the port lease contract in late March (as we reported), after the Parliament voted in favor to tender the port with the 85% of the votes on 10 March 2016.

According to local sources, one of the bids has been received from Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, which has teamed up with Australian infrastructure fund manager IFM Investors and APG Asset Management, a Dutch pension fund.

Another bid has been submitted by Australian fund QIC partnering with Borealis Infrastructure, a direct Canadian infrastructure investor managing a diversified global portfolio on behalf of OMERS.

The third and the last bid comes from a consortium formed by Hastings Funds Management, also from Australia, with Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA)'s infrastructure arm, Wren House Infrastructure Management.

The Department of Treasury and Finance of the state of Victoria expects to fetch about A$5.3 billion ($4.1 billion) through the sale of the container port.

The Port of Melbourne accounts for up to 35 per cent of Australia's container trade. It is located in Melbourne, Victoria, and covers an area at the mouth of the Yarra River, downstream of Bolte Bridge, which is at the head of Port Phillip, as well as several piers on the bay itself.

Since 1 July 2003, the Port of Melbourne has been managed by the Port of Melbourne Corporation, a statutory corporation created by the State of Victoria.

The port hands almost 2.6 million containers annually with 1000 new motor vehicles per day on average. It counts with 36 commercial berths and 7 kilometers of quayline. Around 3000 ship visits annually the port, which total covers 100,000 hectares waters.

In mid August 2014, the State of Victoria appointed as financial advisers Morgan Stanley and Flagstaff Partners to manage the transaction. Minter Ellison was also appointed as legal adviser for the transaction.