A Qube-led consortium has launched a bid for the entire issued capital of Asciano Limited, a rail and port logistics company in Australia.

The team is composed of Qube, Global Infrastructure Management, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and CIC Capital Corporation.

This announcement comes after Brookfield Infrastructure announced, in August 2015, a binding agreement, together with its institutional partners to acquire Asciano Limited. Under the terms of the proposed transaction, Asciano shareholders would have received for each Asciano share held: A$6.94 in cash and 0.0387 Brookfield Infrastructure limited partnership units (BIP Units).

Accordind to Qube, its offer is a better deal for Asciano shareholders, providing A$6.97 per share in cash and one Qube share for every Asciano share.

Asciano Limited is an Australian freight logistics company, operating in railway freight and shipping. Asciano was demerged from Toll Holdings in 2007, and owns Patrick Corporation and Pacific National as subsidiary companies. Asciano specialises in bulk and container shipping and transportation, with port and train operations across Australia. It has over 8,000 employees.