THE LARGEST shareholder in Flinders Ports Holdings has put its stake up for sale, according to a report in the Australian Financial Review’s Street Talk column.
London-based Foresight Group, which has held its investment for almost 14 years, has mandated JP Morgan to find a buyer for its 29.11% stake in FPH, the AFR says. The planned divestiture follows a shareholder vote to wind-up Foresight’s Australian Diversified Infrastructure Fund.
The FPH stake is likely to be auctioned early next year, with “global and domestic infrastructure heavy hitters” to be targeted. But the four other shareholders hold pre-emptive rights.
These are CareSuper (20.81%), EquipSuper (18.6%), State Super NSW (17.47%) and Hostplus (14%), as per FPH’s website.
According to the 2024 annual report, FPH saw total revenue increase 11% over 2023, to $307.9 million while underlying EBITDA rose 11.4% to $134.6 million. Total cargo tonnage, grain tonnage and vessel calls all fell but full containers handled rose 8.1% to 292,098 TEU.
Last week FPH confirmed an almost $400 million investment in the Flinders Adelaide Container Terminal, including a berth extension, two new STS super post-panamax cranes, upgraded IT, access and egress and equipment, and site expansion.
Flinders Ports was established in 2001 when it acquired port assets, a 99-year land lease and port operating agreements from the South Australian Government as part of privatisation, and took over Port Adelaide, Port Lincoln, Port Pirie, Thevenard, Port Giles, Wallaroo and Klein Port.
Original shareholders were the Motor Trades Association Australia superannuation fund and French infrastructure group Galaxy, each with 35.7%. Towage company Adsteam Marine had 14.3%, while Equipsuper and France's Groupe Egis had 7.15% cent each.
Following approaches over several years by potential buyers, in 2007 the owning company became Flinders Port Holdings and there have been subsequent investor shuffles, with Galaxy exiting in 2011 and MTAA merging in 2021 with TasPlan to become Spirit Super which, in turn, in November is due to merge with CareSuper.