NSW Land Registry auction ramps up; bids due mid-Dec
After nearly six months of preparation, London’s NatWest Group Pension Fund is ready to kick off the auction for its 20 per cent stake in NSW Land Registry Services.
NSW Land Registry Services has improved its operational efficiency since it was privatised in 2017, according to the flyer.
Street Talk understands NatWest’s sell-side adviser, RBC Capital Markets, has started reaching out to prospective bidders, asking them to sign non-disclosure agreements to get access to the data room which will open this week.
Tyre kickers are being told to submit non-binding indicative bids by mid-December. Later in the process, NSW Land Registry Services’ existing investors – Macquarie Asset Management, Aware Super and Morrison & Co – would weigh whether they want to exercise pre-emptive rights.
There’s also the question of whether Macquarie’s The Infrastructure Fund would join NatWest’s selldown, given it is offloading its 40 per cent stake at Queensland Airports Limited as well as a 7.19 per cent slice at Perth Airport.
The stake in NSW Land Registry Services has hit the auction block six years after the NSW government privatised it for $2.6 billion.
The sell-side pitch has focused on the registry’s monopoly position, inflation-linked revenue profile, improving margins and ESG credentials. Prospective bidders were told that since 2017, the business has fine-tuned its operational and process efficiencies and invested in technology.
The auction is expected to target financial sponsors from Australia and offshore. Registries have been hotly-contested assets, with past sale processes attracting interest from superannuation funds Aware Super and Australian Retirement Trust, their Canadian counterparts PSP Investments and OMERS, The
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