Business & Media: Business: High stakes scramble for Britain's ports: Oliver Morgan on why the biggest names in global finance are engaged in a multi-billion pound bidding war for such unglamorous assets as docks

• Published in: The Observer (London)
• Main Author: Morgan, Oliver
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: London (UK) Guardian News & Media Limited 18.06.2006
• ISSN: 0029-7712

Moreover, these battles are fought in the full public glare, and have seen some of the biggest names in global finance humbled. Goldman Sachs was dragged through the mud when it failed to land airports owner BAA after a four-month battle with Spanish group Ferrovial. UBS, advising the winner on that one, was on the losing team when PSA, the Singapore ports group backed by government-owned investor Temasek, failed in its bid to buy P&O, snapped up for pounds 3.9bn by Dubai Ports World (DPW) in February. Last Wednesday, less than a week after its BAA defeat, Goldman put in a pounds 2.5bn offer - worth 810p a share - for ABP. The following day it had to raise its offer to pounds 2.85bn (840p) as a rival consortium, headed by Australian bank Macquarie's European Infrastructure fund, countered with a bid at 'at least' that level. Meanwhile it emerged that Macquarie's adviser, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, had been buying shares at 830p. Macquarie would have known all about this tactic: it was advising Ferrovial, along with Citigroup, which had bought a blocking stake in BAA to lock Goldman out. Even the current offer is a premium of more than 40 per cent to the ABP price before 7 February, when Ferrovial's BAA approach became public and infrastructure companies leapt skywards. If ABP were to follow the BAA pattern, we could expect another round at least - and Macquarie is expected to come back at more than 850p.