The owners of Asia Pacific’s leading pallet pooling company Loscam have just revived sale efforts, with UBS as sell-side advisor, three sources familiar with the situation said.

Based in Victoria, Australia, the company is majority owned by China Merchants Group, together with private equity firms Trustar Capital and FountainVest Partners. The owners have sent out IMs to sell the whole business as a preferred option, according to the sources. They have put an initial price expectation of at least USD 2.5bn, or CNY 18bn, said the first two sources.

However, the owners are flexible with the sale structure, and could still split the asset into Australian/New Zealand and Southeast Asia businesses separately, depending on buyers’ interest, the three sources noted.

A fourth source familiar with the situation noted that there is yet no formal process for Loscam but the asset has attracted plenty of inbound interest, which has led to discussions with interested parties. Where these ongoing discussions will lead to depends on what proposals those interested parties could put forward, the source said.

Shareholders had been attempting a sale for its Australian and New Zealand business via an on-and-off process since 2022, with an asking price of around AUD 2bn (USD 1.36bn), but the process was suspended due to market volatility, as reported.

The sale had attracted several buyers and got a non-binding offer valuing the business for USD 2.2bn last year but a deal did not materialize, the first source added.

Previously reported potential bidders include KKR Infrastructure, Pacific Equity Partners, Igneo Infrastructure Partners, Stonepeak and Morgan Stanley Infrastructure.

Loscam reported net profit of CNY 331m with revenue of around CNY 1.78bn in the nine months ended September 2023, according to a marketing material seen by this news service.

For its Australian standalone business, it reported AUD 179m (USD 123m) in revenue in 2023, according to Loscam’s Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) financial statements and reports.

China Merchants had acquired Loscam for about USD 546.43m, while CITIC Capital and FountainVest paid about USD 356m for a 55% equity share in 2018, with CITIC (later renamed as Trustar) holding 33% and FountainVest holding a 22% stake.

Loscam has a syndicate loan of AUD 250m which is due to mature in November 2024, according to the same financial statement. “Management commenced the negotiation with a majority of external lenders to renew the syndicate facility and received positive feedback and interests from all of these lenders,” the report reads.

Loscam has a score of 51 out of 100, according to Mergermarket‘s Likely to Exit (LTE) predictive algorithm. *

UBS declined to comment. China Merchants, Trustar, FountainVest and Loscam did not respond to requests for comment.

*Mergermarket’s LTE predictive analytics assign a score to sponsor-backed companies to help track and predict when an exit could occur through M&A, an IPO, a direct listing or a deSPAC transaction.