Interest rising in Shell’s Curtis Island plant sell-off

On offer at Shell’s Curtis Island plant is a 26.25 per cent stake of the infrastructure, expected to be worth about $2.5bn. Picture: Bloomberg

The competition for Shell’s Queensland Curtis Island plant is expected to ramp up this week when first round bids are due.

On offer is a 26.25 per cent stake of the infrastructure, expected to be worth about $2.5bn.

So far, IFM is known to be in the running with Brookfield, which is bidding through the Brookfield Super-Core Infrastructure Partners fund.

Hong Kong-based CKI, which is advised by Morgan Stanley, could be in the mix.

GIP is expected to take a look, with some suggesting that the US-based fund wouldn’t want the asset to be Brookfield’s and IFM’s for the taking.

There have been suggestions that Queensland Investment Corporation’s interest in the asset is lukewarm at best.

Brookfield will bid for the asset through what has been described as a back-to-basics ‘‘long-life’’ infrastructure fund, which last year raised $US1.6bn.

The fund was the firm’s second “perpetual” strategy, following a fund focused on US real estate investments, according to reports in The Wall Street Journal.

Advisory firm Rothschild is working on the sale of the asset.

RBC and Lazard are working with IFM and Brookfield.

The assets include jetties, storage facilities and utilities.

Buyers will receive a fixed annual cash income for 15 years that comes from fees for using the plant, which are not linked to the oil price, commodity prices or throughput.

Shell is just one of the oil and gas companies offloading assets in Australia. Chevron is divesting its North West Shelf LNG plant stake, while ExxonMobil is selling its.Bass Strait assets.