The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has suspended the review timelines for its consideration of both:
- the proposed acquisition of Asciano Limited (ASX: AIO) (Asciano) by a consortium comprising Qube Holdings Limited (ASX: QUB), Global Infrastructure Partners, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and CIC Capital Corporation (Qube Consortium)
- the proposed acquisition of Asciano by a consortium assembled by Brookfield Asset Management Inc. that includes Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P (Brookfield Consortium).
This is due to the announcement this morning of a potential transaction under which the Brookfield Consortium and the Qube Consortium would together facilitate the acquisition of 100% of the issued capital of Asciano.
The ACCC is awaiting further details of the new potential transaction and will update the ACCC public mergers register in due course.