By Angela Macdonald-Smith
Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Babcock & Brown Infrastructure Group, owner of Australia's second-biggest coal-export harbor, said it's examining the potential sale of as much as 49 percent of the port after drawing interest from potential bidders.
The company will ``only look to sell down if the price is right,'' Helen Liossis, its Sydney-based investor relations manager, said today. She declined to name interested parties.
Babcock Infrastructure is understood to have issued confidential agreements to potential bidders after a group of mining companies, including Xstrata Plc, made an approach to buy the A$2.3 billion ($1.5 billion) Dalrymple Bay port, the Australian Financial Review said today. A sale would help pay debt and secure funds for expansion, the newspaper reported.
``There are many users out there that would love to get their hands on the asset,'' Liossis said by telephone. ``Where we know there is strong interest it is appropriate that we test out that appetite and the pricing for co-investing.''
Babcock Infrastructure, which has slumped 95 percent in Sydney trading in the past six months, gained as much as 7.6 percent today to 5.7 cents on the Australian stock exchange and was at 5.4 cents at 10:45 a.m. local time.
To contact the reporter on this story: Angela Macdonald-Smith in Sydney at amacdonaldsm@bloomberg.net
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