Australia’s Qube Holdings’ shares bounce 20% as Macquarie proposes $7.5 billion takeover deal

Australia’s Qube Holdings introduced on Monday that Macquarie Asset Administration had submitted a non-binding proposal to accumulate the logistics firm at an enterprise worth of 11.6 billion Australian {dollars} ($7.49 billion).

Macquarie has provided to purchase Qube for AU$5.2 per share in money, representing an almost 28% premium to Qube’s closing share worth of AU$4.07 on Friday.

Qube shares jumped over 20% to a record-high of AU$4.89 on Monday whereas Macquarie Group, the father or mother firm of the asset administration unit, noticed its shares dip as a lot as 0.37% to AU$193.38.

The takeover bid adopted a interval of negotiations after a decrease unsolicited provide from Macquarie asset administration earlier, Qube stated in its submitting, with out specifying the precise worth of the earlier provide.

The enterprise worth represents about 14.4 occasions Qube’s earnings earlier than curiosity, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, for monetary 12 months 2025, in keeping with the submitting. Enterprise worth sometimes measures an organization’s whole worth, comprising its market capitalization and the fee to repay its debt, minus money.

Qube’s operations largely contain container leasing, automobile and grain cargo terminals and highway and rail transport companies.

The deal is topic to a “passable completion” of due diligence on Qube and its operations, remaining approval from each corporations’ boards and regulatory approvals.

Qube stated it has entered into an exclusivity deed with Macquarie, throughout which the asset supervisor would have the chance to undertake due diligence till Feb. 1, 2026.

“We sit up for persevering with to interact constructively in the most effective pursuits of our shareholders,” Qube Chairman John Bevan stated within the submitting.

In an emailed response Monday, a spokesperson for Macquarie Asset Administration declined CNBC’s request for remark.

Macquarie Asset Administration at present manages virtually AU$960 billion in belongings globally throughout private and non-private markets with portfolio corporations protecting infrastructure, actual property and agriculture sectors.

Following Qube’s announcement, Samuel Seow, vice chairman and fairness analyst at Citi Financial institution, reaffirmed his “purchase” ranking on the corporate, with a goal worth of AU$4.9. Seow flagged potential draw back dangers akin to worth competitors in Australian logistics market and industrial motion that will affect Qube’s workforce.

The Qube-Macquarie proposed transaction comes at a occasions when the Australian logistics sector has seen heightened dealmaking exercise, with main gamers in search of to broaden their attain within the nation.

DP World, which operates terminals and warehouses at ports throughout Australia, earlier this 12 months acquired Silk Logistics for AU$175 million, taking on its landside warehousing and wharf cartage transportation enterprise — operations that includes transferring items from ports to warehouses or different locations.

Lindsay Australia in Could acquired SRT Logistics, Tasmania’s largest refrigerated provide chain operator, for about $108 million, upping the ante in increasing its nationwide chilly chain footprint. That adopted the acquisition of GJ Freight earlier this 12 months as Lindsay seeks to broaden its operations into Western Australia.

Individually, Australia’s BHP Group, the world’s greatest miner, introduced Monday that it was abandoning its pursuit of British mining firm Anglo American, reversing its try at a reportedly $49 billion takeover of Anglo it initiated final 12 months.