India's Adani wins bidding for Australia's Abbot Point -| Reuters

India's Adani wins bidding for Australia's Abbot Point -Reuters

India's Adani Enterprises has agreed to buy the Abbot Point Coal Terminal in Australia's Queensland state in a deal valued at around A$1.85 billion ($2 billion) and expected to be announced later on Tuesday, sources said.

Adani, which was competing with a last-minute offer for the asset by Australian mining tycoon Nathan Tinkler, had won the bidding, three sources familiar with the deal told Reuters.

Standard Chartered Bank is arranging debt for Adani's bid. A successful sale would make it one of the largest acquisitions of an Australian asset by an Indian company since Adani acquired Linc Energy's Gaililee coal project for $2.7 billion last August. Adani or Tinkler were not immediately available for comment. A Queensland government spokesman declined to comment.

Morgan Stanley was arranging debt for Tinkler's International Port and Logistics Company, while Hong Kong-based hedge fund Noon Day was investing about A$200 million in mezzanine debt, sources said. Located in North Queensland, the terminal services three mines in the Bowen Basin. It is currently undergoing expansion to increase capacity to 50 million tonnes per annum from 21 million tonnes.

The Queensland government has already raised at least $6.3 billion from the sale of the Port of Brisbane and the $4 billion float of rail freight business QR National Ltd. Other groups which also looked at the asset included Brookfield Infrastructure Patners and Macquarie Group Ltd , sources have told Reuters previously.

Credit Suisse is advising on Tinkler's bid. Bank of America Merrill Lynch is advising the Queensland government. ($1 = 0.914 Australian Dollars) (Additional reporting by Narayanan Somasundaram in Sydney and Stephen Aldred in Hong Kong; Editing by Ed Davies)