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Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Canada's Brookfield buying Australia freight firm Asciano for $6.6 bln, (NYSE: BAM)

Canada's Brookfield Asset Management is buying Australian port and rail freight firm Asciano for $6.6 billion to form a global logistics player, scooping up an asset that has been made cheaper by a slump in coal prices. The deal, the largest purchase of an Australian firm by an overseas entity since 2011 and the biggest acquisition by a Canadian firm in that country, underscores the huge international appetite for Australian infrastructure.It also casts a vote of confidence in the long-term future of the Australian coal industry, which is expected to defy global pressure on high polluting energy sources and grow exports in the years ahead. Coal exports are a key generator of earnings for haulage companies like Asciano.After slumping to 8-year lows, the coal price CO-FOBNWC-AU will probably stop falling soon and a lower Australian dollar means coal producers "are probably in better condition today than they were a year ago", Brookfield's infrastructure chief executive, Sam Pollock, told journalists in Sydney.

Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (Brookfield) is a global alternative asset manager. Shares of BAM fell by 0.06% or $-0.02/share to $34.50. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $28.40 and as high as $39.00. On average, 1252920 shares of BAM exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 1630935.



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