insto - Australian financial markets

The QR National IPO is one of the market’s big hopes of 2010. As James Brooks reports, the float is still on track for Q4.

Coal rail operation QR National says it is still on track for a Q4 IPO, likely to raise around $5 billion and rank as Australia’s largest float of 2010 by some distance. QR managing director Lance Hockridge said he had had meetings with investors In Australia, Asia, Europe and North America and was confident of the appetite for the IPO. “The market is looking for high quality, low risk opportunities, and it’s in that space that we loom large,” Hockridge said.

The same week as the Queensland Government appointed advisors on the float of the QR National rail assets, the coal industry has revved up its attempt to trump the bid and force a trade sale. 14 of Queensland’s biggest coal companies are talking up their interest in offering to a substantial premium to what the market is currently expected to pay for QR, and intervene before the asset gets to an IPO, valued at between $3 and $7 billion.

But Queensland Treasurer Andrew Fraser said there was currently no offer “on the table from the coal companies.