Last week Asciano, which owns coal rail hauler Pacific National, said the June 26-received proposal from Brookfield had an implied value of $9.05 per Asciano share in cash and scrip.
“The board of Asciano, together with its advisers, concluded that it was in the interests of its shareholders to engage further with Brookfield on an exclusive basis to progress the proposal,” the Australia-listed logistics player said.
“Discussions are at a very early stage and a number of significant steps need to be undertaken in order to progress to a formal proposal from Brookfield.”
In June a 50:50 consortium of Brookfield and Macquarie Capital finalised a $US2.1 billion ($A2.8 billion) acquisition of Apache Energy’s Western Australian oil and gas assets.
