SeaRoad Group executive chair Chas Kelly has dismissed media reports that the company is for sale, saying existing shareholders are "very happy with where we are".
The Australian’s Data Room column recently reported PwC had been appointed to seek a buyer for SeaRoad Logistics, in light of the recent appetite for Allegro Capital’s Strait Link, acquired late last year by Igneo Infrastructure Partners and the current sale process for New Zealand’s Strait NZ.
The publication suggested the company was generating about $50 million of annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, suggesting "a price tag on the business of up to $500 million".
However, Mr Kelly told DCN that neither SeaRoad Logistics nor SeaRoad Shipping nor any part of the business was for sale and while he would "never say never", he had assured staff, customers and service providers there was nothing active or proposed.
"We have appointed PwC to examine the business past, present and future. This is about having an external set of eyes on SeaRoad to ensure we’re doing the best with what we have and where we’re going," he said.
"The shareholders (the Kelly family and the [Terry] Morris family) are very happy with the business and Mr Kelly’s sons are committed to keeping and running the company," he said.
"We’ve had many approaches over the years and rejected them all. Of course, if someone walked up with an offer that couldn’t be refused, we’d have to think about it but that’s not on the cards."
Mr Kelly dismissed the figures in the Data Room report, saying they were inaccurate.
Meanwhile, SeaRoad Shipping’s new ro-ro SeaRoad 1 has completed sea, machinery, LNG system and equipment trials in Germany and is undergoing finishing touches before departing for Australia.
The ship will sail via the Cape of Good Hope, not through Suez and is expected to take up Devonport-Melbourne service in the first week of January.