The Qube-led consortium and Brookfield Infrastructure are mulling a joint bid for the entire issued capital of Asciano Limited, a rail and port logistics company in Australia. 

To be more specific, Qube and its consortium partners Global Infrastructure Partners, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the China Investment Corporation, along with  Brookfield Infrastructure and its institutional partners are considering a joint US$9.28 all-cash bid, which would value Asciano at US$9.05 billion.

Last month Asciano accepted the bid from the Qube-led consortium after Brookfield, which had previously offered a US$8,9 billion proposal, failed to formalize a higher cash bid for the group. Peviously, we reported that the board of Asciano declared the US$9.05 bid from the Qube-led consortium superior to the former bid proposed by Brookfield Infrastructure.

Asciano Limited is an Australian freight logistics company, operating in railway freight and shipping. Asciano was demerged from Toll Holdings in 2007, and owns Patrick Corporation and Pacific National as subsidiary companies. Asciano specialises in bulk and container shipping and transportation, with port and train operations across Australia. It has over 8,000 employees.