Macquarie Asset Management on buying spree in New Zealand

Macquarie Asset Management has NZ in its sights. Picture: AAP

Fresh from striking a $24bn deal to sell the Airtrunk data centre giant it co-owned, Macquarie Asset Management is understood to have turned its attention to New Zealand for a buying spree.

DataRoom understands that the infrastructure arm of the Australian listed bank, previously known as MIRA, has healthcare, aged care and retirement business operators in its sights, as well as infrastructure assets and others that meet the “infrastructure core plus” criteria, as it looks to diversify its fund.

It is expected to be one of the keenest suitors for Dunedin Council’s Aurora Energy electricity business, which could come up for sale after councillors vote next week.

Aurora Energy supplies power to more than 200,000 homes across the Southland and Otago regions.

The asking price is likely to be around $NZ1.5bn.

Councils in New Zealand – many of which have already substantially increased rates for residents – are putting assets on the block as they look to pay for capital works in water services and public transport and pay down debt.

Port of Tauranga could also be of interest to MAM.

Its market value is $NZ3.7bn.

Cameron Partners will appoint an investment bank to act on an asset sale shortly. Bay of Plenty Council, which is known to be weighing up a sale, owns about 50 per cent.

The port’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation decreased by 7 per cent to $NZ203.7m as operating costs increased and imports fell amid low consumer confidence.

There had been plans by the Wellington Council to sell 34 per cent of Wellington Airport, but that is off the agenda for now.

The owner of the remainder is Infratil, with 66 per cent.

Infratil owns Canberra Data Centres. DataRoom revealed in July that Barrenjoey was on board to explore a sale for investor Commonwealth Super.

But some question whether Infratil, which is managed by Morrison & Co and owns 48.2 per cent, is also a seller.

Based on the $24bn that MAM, PSP and founder Robin Khuda received for Airtrunk from Blackstone, other data centre owners may be thinking about monetising their investments.

Infratil raised $1bn in June, about $600m of which was for capital investment in CDC, so it’s not in need of any more money for now, but will continue to be capital-hungry in future.

It may consider a partial selldown with a party also adding additional capital, capitalising on the raging demand for exposure to data storage with artificial intelligence, but it’s known that the most eager seller out of the asset is Commonwealth Super.

Meanwhile, the Morrison & Co-managed fund UTA is selling a 25 per cent stake in Perth Airport after other funds TIF and ART tried last year.

The other parties each had over 4 per cent on offer or 9.14 per cent in total, worth $700m through UBS.

The opportunity for other owners to buy the stake ends in a couple of weeks.

However, the asking price is lower than the 27 times earnings that was being called for when other shareholders were looking to divest last year.