Igneo wins Strait Link, AFR reports

IGNEO Infrastructure Partners has won the race to buy Bass Strait and Tasmanian shipping and transport operator Strait Link, according to the Australian Financial Review.

The publication’s well-connected Street Talk column reported this afternoon [18 December] that vendors Allegro Funds has accepted the Igneo bid over that of rival Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and documents will be signed overnight.

Strait Link was put up for sale in August with price expectations of up to $500 million.

As DCN previously reported, Igneo IP is part of the First Sentier Group which holds $215 billion of global assets under management, and has its origins in 1988 when founded by the then State Bank of NSW before being sold in 2019 by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia to Japan’s Mitsubishi.

Igneo IP has invested in in high-quality, mature, mid-market infrastructure companies in renewables, digital infrastructure, waste management, water utilities, transportation and logistics sectors in Europe, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and North America, according to its website. Amongst several transport-related entities, Igneo owns Swedish ferry company Scandilines.

Strait Link is the former Toll Shipping bought as part of the acquisition of (now) Team Global Express in September 2021. It was separated as an entity by Allegro and earlier this year TGE sold its Tasmanian logistics interests into Strait Link in a move widely seen as ‘fattening’ the latter for sale.

Strait Link owns and operates the Melbourne-Burnie ro-ros Tasmanian Achiever II and Victorian Reliance II and 164 prime movers, 570 trailers, 4,500 containers and 11 depots across Tasmania and Victoria, plus long-term terminal leases at 1 East Webb Dock, Melbourne and No.4 berth, Burnie.