Queensland Miners To Bid For Rail Network

Bid Worth Over $A4 billion

A group of 13 Australian coal miners have made a joint A$4.85 billion bid for the Queensland rail-track network in a bid to prevent the system being sold on to the stock market as part of the state’s privatisation programme.


The group, the Queensland Coal Industry Rail Group (QCIRG), is headed by BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata and says its bid was conditional on the state government dropping its plan to sell both the track network and the coal haulage business in an initial public offer.

The miners are concerned that if both the tracks and trains are sold together the new private owner would exert too much power over the coal industry.

Most of Australia's coal ports are dogged by infrastructure constraints and suffer from endemic congestion, with the bottlenecks resulting in lengthy queues of ships waiting for berths.

QCIRG is chaired by former New South Wales state premier Nick Greiner, who said the offer represents a substantial premium to what is likely to be achieved under the government's proposed listing plan.

"We have considered the alternative model under the IPO ... and strongly believe it does not represent an optimal or even reasonable basis for assuring the future of the state's major export industry," Greiner said in a statement.

"Importantly, our offer is able to be settled with the government prior to the IPO and will not be dependent on volatile equity markets, removing major risk for the state while also providing early settlement."