According to local sources in Australia, three consortia are in the race for the A$5-billion-plus sale of Queensland Motorways (QML). 

Transurban and AustralianSuper would form one of the groups, IFM Investors and Canada's Borealis Infrastructure another one and Abertis Infraestructuras is believed to have teamed up with Melbourne-based Hastings Fund Management, but could be looking for another Australian partner.

According to these sources, Spain's Abertis could be trying to court Australian infrastructure fund manager CP2, largely because Hastings is not willing to invest much equity in the transaction. Total equity needed for the deal would be between A$3 billion to A$4 billion, with bids likely to be geared at 40 to 50 %.

Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) officially started the sale process on December 26. Indicative bids are due on February 7 and are expected to come in at between $5 billion and $6 billion.

Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) is hoping to seal the transaction by the end of April 2014. Under the auction process, QIC will shortlist parties after the indicative offer phase, then call for final binding offers to be submitted by mid-April 2014.

The Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) is a government owned corporation based in Brisbane and, with over $50 billion funds invested across the globe, is Australia's fourth largest funds manager. QIC holds the investment in QML on behalf of the state's Defined Benefit Fund, which funds superannuation obligations for retired workers.

The state Government transferred QML to QIC in May 2011 for a market-value price of A$3.088 billion on an enterprise value basis. Since then the business has been substantially transformed, and has just reached contractual agreement to acquire Brisbane's Clem7 Tunnel for A$618 million, tolling rights for the city's A$1.5 billion Legacy Way tunnel and the A$308 million Go Between bridge.

Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) appointed Macquarie Group and UBS as financial advisers for the potential sale of the $4 billion Queensland Motorways (QML).