One of the heavyweight offshore investors involved in Asciano's carve up is believed to be eyeing another Australian acquisition.
British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCIMC), one of Canada's largest institutional investors with more than $120 billion in assets worldwide, is understood to be preparing for New South Wales' third and final electricity network auction Endeavour Energy.
It is understood BCIMC has teamed up with Macquarie-backed asset manager Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, in a bidding consortium advised by the Australian bank's Macquarie Capital.
The group is expected to be structured to pass muster with auction's foreign investment guidelines.
Bidders were told late last year that no single foreign investor would be able to buy more than half the 50.4 per cent Endeavour Energy stake that is up for grabs. And almost half of the money - enough to represent a 20 per cent stake in Endeavour - must come from Australian domiciled investors.
Other rules cover corporate governance, including that at least three senior managers of the company need to be Australian citizens with requisite security clearances.
The group is expected to head to auction and line up against the likes of Hastings Funds Management-backed Transgrid and QIC Ltd, as well as State Grid Corporation of China, among other parties.
NSW's advisers, Deutsche Bank and UBS, received formal expressions of interest on Monday, and are calling for first round bids in mid-February.
Bidding consortia are expected to be vetted as part of the expressions of interest phase, with much focus on where the bidders and their underlying funds would come from.
As for BCIMC, it is a keen infrastructure investor worldwide and was one Brookfield Infrastructure Partners key backers as it went about privatising Asciano in 2015.
While Asciano ended up being split between Brookfield's camp and a second consortium headed by Qube Holdings, BCIMC walked away with minority stakes in both Asciano's rail and port assets.
It will be interesting to see whether the MIRA consortium turns to Macquarie Group's balance sheet to help get the Endeavour deal done, along with other institutional backers.
Endeavour is NSW's third largest electricity distribution network, providing electricity to close to 1 million customers and a regulated asset base worth about $6 billion.
The company's annual report, tabled in NSW Parliament late last year, showed Endeavour had $1.48 billion revenue in the year to June 30, $687 million earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation and paid a $116.5 million dividend to its owner, the government.
