Engineering, Freight Rail, Passenger Rail, Signalling & Communications

Ventia’s acquisition of Broadspectrum given green light

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has stated that it will not oppose Ventia’s acquisition of Broadspectrum.

The acquisition was first announced in late 2019. Ventia is a 50/50 partnership of CIMIC Group, which also owns CPB Contractors and UGL Limited, and funds management firm Apollo Global Management. Although operating largely in other sectors, Ventia has provided work on the Parramatta Light Rail. Ventia’s subsidiary, Visionstream, provides telecommunication services to the rail industry.

Broadspectrum, owned by Spanish multinational Ferrovial, provides rail services on the Sydney rail network, to Bluescope at Pork Kembla, on the Brisbane Airport rail Link, and provides maintenance services in South Australia. Broadspectrum will also install the Automatic Train Protection project on the Sydney Trains network.

The ACCC said that strong competition would remain in the sector if the purchase goes ahead.

“We looked at this proposed acquisition closely to ensure strong competition remains in the supply of infrastructure services to industries with a direct impact on consumer prices,” said ACCC commissioner Stephen Ridgeway.

“We contacted many customers of infrastructure services, and received consistent feedback that there is sufficient competition from alternative suppliers and that companies will continue to have a variety of options when contracting for infrastructure services.”