Morrison & Co, Macquarie battle for VicRoads

The contest for the $2bn-plus Victoria motor registry unit VicRoads is well underway.

The contest for the $2bn-plus Victoria motor registry unit VicRoads is well underway and as predicted, it is shaping up as a shootout between Macquarie Group and Morrison & Co.

Parties that are understood to have lobbed a first round offer on Tuesday include Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets with Aware Super, advised by Gresham and Macquarie Capital.

Brookfield is believed to be teaming up with Morrison & Co as a contender, taking advice from Barrenjoey Capital Partners.

The wild card in the contest is thought to be Plenary.

Sources say that Plenary is believed to have been weighing an offer with CDPQ, but it is unclear if it eventually made an offer or if it passed on the auction.

Final bids are understood to be due around March.

Working on the sale process is investment bank Morgan Stanley, KPMG and law firm MinterEllison.

VicRoads handles all the state’s motor vehicle registrations, which helps to fund critical road infrastructure.

MIRA joined forces in the past with Canada’s PSP to buy land titles offices in Western Australia and South Australia.

Morrison purchased the fund that acquired the NSW government land title and registry business with Aware Super.

That Morrison fund was previously overseen by Hastings Funds Management, owned by Westpac at the time.

Elsewhere, IGO finally agreed a deal to buy nickel producer Western Areas, as announced on Thursday.

Initially, the expectation was that IGO would pay scrip for Western Areas, but it paid cash in a transaction that values the target at $1.1bn.

It equated to $3.36 per share.

Some market experts said the deal was strategically the right move for IGO, but it paid a full price.

Shares on Thursday closed at $3.42, which indicates that some suspect a rival approach could emerge, potentially from BHP or the company of existing shareholder Andrew Forrest with Wyloo Group.

IGO’s market value is now about $8bn and expectations are that it will make additional acquisitions of producers of resources used to make clean energy.

Western Areas is advised by Rothschild & Co and Goldman Sachs, while IGO is working with Macquarie.