Meet the mystery infra fund competing with APA for Alinta WA
Wall Street giant Morgan Stanley’s infrastructure investing arm has emerged as a competing bidder to ASX-listed gas pipelines giant, APA Group, in the circa $2billion sale process for Alinta Energy’s power assets in the Pilbara.
Alinta’s Jeff Dimery. Jeremy Piper
It is understood Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners, led by Asia Pacific head Mark Mclean, has quietly advanced through the sale process. It is expected to table a binding proposal on Monday, when final bids are due.
MSIP, set up 17 years ago, has more than $US16 billion in assets under management across the globe. Locally, it is best known for a co-investment in property settlement software PEXA, but it’s been in-and-around auctions for assets such as Waste Management NZ and Vector Metering, among others.
It is harder to get deals done at the moment. The Foreign Investment Review Board delayed financial close at clinical trials business George Clinical’s sale to its Asian buyer by nearly nine months, while the competition regulator kiboshedSuncorp Bank’s $4.9 billion sale to ANZ earlier this month.
Working in Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners’ favour is that it’s not expected to pose concerns for the members of the Five Eyes intelligence community — an intelligence sharing alliance established in 1941 between the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. While initially utilised for purposes of defence, nowadays it is a helpful tool for dealmakers because investment proposals from its members are viewed more favourably by FIRB.
MSIP, which has moved through the auction in stealth mode, would be vying for the assets against APA Group, which is being advised by Morgan Stanley and Barrenjoey. Goldman Sachs is advising Alinta’s
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