Port of Rotterdam sails into Australia, eyes Fremantle

Street Talk understands Rotterdam overlooked participating in Port of Melbourne’s underway auction to focus solely on Fremantle. 

The company’s international arm is increasingly active in a number of regions including the Middle East, Brazil and Indonesia. Port of Rotterdam typically seeks to be a port landlord, where port authorities lease plots of land on a long-term lease basis and container stevedores such as Hutchison Whampoa operate the actual terminals. 

Fremantle’s sale, should it be approved by the politicians, is shaping up to be such a deal. 

Rotterdam is expected to come up against the usual list of Australian port tyrekickers who are presently focused on the $6 billion-plus Port of Melbourne. That list include’s Macquarie Group’s Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, IFM Investors, QIC Ltd, Hastings Funds Management and United States-based Global Infrastructure Partners, and their respective clients and financial co-investors.