Ventura bus auction nears destination with preferred bidder in tow
Keppel Infrastructure Holdings, the Singapore-listed asset management giant, is poised to acquire family-owned bus operator Ventura Group.
Ventura, which has been owned by the Cornwall family since 1924, was put up for sale earlier this year by Goldman Sachs. The investment bank told suitors it had $80 million in annual earnings, $300 million in revenue and an “infrastructure-like risk profile”.
Andrew Cornwall at the Ventura depot. His family is selling the business. Josh Robenstone
Street Talk can reveal Keppel, which has a market capitalisation of some $3 billion, is the preferred bidder and is expected to sign off on the deal this week. Last month, this column reported the Singapore-headquartered group was one of two suitors to have lobbed final bids. The other was Spanish trade player Mobility ADO.
Keppel is being advised by Flagstaff. The Victorian bus group is headed into the same listed vehicle that houses the company’s interest in local chemicals business Ixom.
The sale of Ventura to Keppel will also mark the third time Mobility ADO has come away empty from an auction process, having lost out to OPTrust’s Kinetic at Queensland’s Transit Australia Group in 2019 and Next Capital’s NZ Bus last year. It had engaged Origin Capital Group for assistance with due diligence and bid preparations.
Other interested parties included Kinetic and ComfortDelGro, with the latter submitting a joint indicative bid with Pacific Equity Partners. Neither made it to the second round.
As part of its sales pitch, Goldman bankers told suitors that Ventura was the largest bus operator in Victoria with around 530 of Melbourne’s 1205 total routes. The company, according to the sale flyer dubbed Project Ninja, had an “infrastructure-like risk profile from near-100 per cent control of key asserts” and “true incumbency on key metropolitan bus service contracts”.
Ventura could be, according to Goldman Sachs, a way for prospective buyers to gain a foothold in Australia’s $6.8 billion bus and light rail market. The largest players are Keolis Downer, with a 17.5 per cent share, followed by Transdev and ComfortDelGro, according to IBISWorld data.
One hazard around the corner is whether the Victorian government will change how it doles out contracts. Ventura’s are up for renewal in 2028. While it has been a passive process in the past, the rules have recently changed and things could look different. No doubt Keppel has taken that into consideration as the auction has progressed, with Ventura initially pitched to prospective buyers as a $1 billion deal.
Meanwhile, Keppel has had plenty going on in Australia this year. After ditching a planned sale of Ixom, acquired from Blackstone in 2018, it returned to dealmaking with a $1 billion refinancing round, mandating Commonwealth Bank, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation and United Overseas Bank in July.
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