It’s the battle of ditched suitors. Both Goldman Sachs and Australian Bank Macquarie have been sent packing this year. Macquarie, a subsidiary of Hill Samuel Co until it was spun off in the mid ’80s, was one of the failed suitors for the London Stock Exchange, while Goldman Sachs is still smarting over its failed bid for BAA, a battle it lost to Spanish company Ferrovial, which, ironically, is advised by Macquarie.
Now the two companies have their sights set on Associated British Ports, which owns 21 ports across the land and was privatised by Mrs T back in 1983.
The ports business is hot property. Recently Peninsular Oriental was bought by Dubai DP for £6.8bn while the UK’s Mersey Docks and PD Ports have also been bought out recently.
As for Associated British Ports, profits have doubled in the last five years to just south of £100mn, and with lucrative deals signed up with Australia’s BHP Billiton Ltd, and a new port opened in Immingham on the North East coast, the two suitors it would appear, want it badly enough to enter into a a bidding war.
Goldman Sachs started it all in March offering 730p a share and since then their bid had gone up and up, finally hitting 910p a share last night. Now it’s over to the Aussie bank. It has advised shareholders to do nothing while it reviews the situation
It must have been at terrible dilemma for Macquarie’s management yesterday. Should they celebrate their country’s qualification to the next round of the World Cup despite having to contend with Croatia’s Josep “Three Yellows” Simunic, or focus on their ports bid? After all, neither of the protagonists in the battle for Associated British Ports wish to see their bids left all at sea.
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