Bligh confirmed the government would sell the Port of Brisbane, QR’s above and below rail coal business QR National Coal, the Abbot Point Coal Terminal, Queensland Motorways and Forest Plantations Queensland over the next three to five years.
The staged program would deliver estimated proceeds of $15 billion and avoid a further $12 billion in required capital investment over the next five years, representing a $30 billion benefit to taxpayers, Bligh said.
Department of Transport and Main Roads director-general David Stewart would not be drawn on details of the sale.
“The sale is not an instantaneous process. It’s a three to five year program. How it looks, how it feels, I can’t tell you, I don’t know,” he said.
QR chief executive Lance Hockridge said QR was working with a Queensland Treasury sale team, which was in the process of appointing advisors.
QR had arranged a mirror sales team, “not in any sense to second-guess what the government is doing but to support what they are doing,” Hockridge said.
“Our expectation is that pretty well straight away we will start to get requests for information and involvement with the various advisors and so forth.”
Treasury would undertake a scoping study to either confirm Treasurer Andrew Fraser’s announcements or make new recommendations, Hockridge said.
“In letter that the Treasurer has given us…the key things are: the government is looking to find the structure which is optimal, and secondly, to reinforce, that in the meantime, it is business as usual for QR,” he said.
“What we don’t want is for all of this to become a huge distraction in the business.”
Like Stewart, Hockridge would not comment on the process of the sale.
“We are not making any judgments about what the structure will be,” he said.
One proponent has already signalled his intention to buy the rail assets.
Australian Transport and Energy Corridor chairman Everald Compton has called the government’s decision to sell the infrastructure assets “courageous” and “correct”.
“In the interests of the future prosperity of all Queenslanders, QR must be totally privatised as a matter of urgency,” Compton said.
Earlier this month Compton announced he was amassing a $500 million investment fund to bid for the railways and ports being put up for sale by the government.
To raise the necessary capital by the end of 2009, Compton was talking with a number of superannuation and private equity funds interested in participating in the purchase of the assets, he said.
The Everald Compton Infrastructure Trust would bid through consortiums and partnerships with other major buyers, he said.
In addition to the items listed by Bligh, Compton has called for the government to put the port of Gladstone up for sale.
“The port of Gladstone must be sold as well, as it is the one that will spark the greatest interest from buyers who see its development potential as being enormous,” Compton said.
“None of Queensland’s infrastructure has ever been developed and operated to its maximum capacity because railways and ports run by bureaucrats will never ever reach full potential.
“Private enterprise will double the freight carried on our railways and through our ports.”
Source: Lloyd’s List Daily Commercial News – www.lloydslistdcn.com.au
 
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