One of the rumoured bidders for Loscam has dropped out

International pallet business Loscam is attracting plenty of interest.

Stonepeak may be looking at lots of acquisition opportunities in Australia, but now it transpires that Loscam will not be one of them.

After being linked to the sale of the pallets business for some time, Stonepeak - the infrastructure investor that counts former Macquarie Banker Darren Keogh among its top executives - is understood to have moved on from the pallet pooling business.

Yet that’s not to say it won’t be the case for Blackstone.

Blackstone, the New York-based buyout fund that is a prolific investor in Australia, is now understood to have been among the ten-odd parties given the documents to take a look at the business.

Blackstone is sharply focused on buying the $5bn-plus data centre operator AirTrunk, hiring Morgan Stanley for a tilt at the business up for sale through Goldman Sachs and Macquarie Capital and into the second round of the sale process.

Last year, it was planning to buy Ticketek owner TEG Group but moved on when the vendors wanted more than it was willing to pay.

Blackstone is the world’s largest alternative asset manager with $US1 trillion in assets under management including investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, life sciences, growth equity, opportunistic, non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds globally.

It also has a global focus on buying assets in particular areas that offer exposure to leisure, travel and entertainment, the energy transition and move towards digitalisation.

Loscam includes operations in China, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand and is expected to be worth at least $3bn.

First round bids are anticipated to be due around the middle of July.

The owners may opt to break up the portfolio and sell it to different suitors.

Brambles is looking at the Southeast Asia arm, while Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is interested in the business as a whole, hiring Morgan Stanley to compete on the sale.

China Merchants purchased the business in 2010 for $US650m in a deal involving Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, and in 2018 it sold down a 55 per cent interest to CITIC Capital Partners and FountainVest.

EQT had been looking but is understood to no longer be in the mix.

Other possibilities are The Carlyle Group, although it may be less competitive against the infrastructure buyers which may also include Morgan Stanley Infrastructure and Brookfield.

Working for Loscam is investment bank UBS.

It is understood that management presentations have been held with the prospective suitors.

UBS went to about 10 parties to test their interest in Loscam in recent weeks.

Loscam fits the description of “core plus” infrastructure, where the assets have steady earnings streams similar to infrastructure-style assets.

It is believed that the annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for the Australian, New Zealand and Asian operations, including China and Southeast Asia, are at least $200m.

Loscam’s owners are looking for a price somewhere between 13 and 15 times that number, which puts the sale price at more than $3bn.

The logistics business describes itself as a trusted name in pooling and returnable packaging solutions for supply chains.