Aurizon buys One Rail freight group for $2.35b - The Australian Financial Review

Rail group Aurizon has capped off another huge week of mergers and acquisitions with a $2.35 billion cash acquisition of freight rail group One Rail Australia that will help to haul more of the commodities used in a low carbon world, such as manganese and rare earths.

It is buying the freight rail group, using debt to pay for the acquisition, from Macquarie Asset Management to strengthen its bulk haulage business and diversify away from its core coal haulage operations in Queensland and NSW.

The rail group has previously said that it wants to snare a 20-25 per cent market share of what it claims will be a $1.25 billion profit pool for bulk haulage by 2030.

A lawsuit filed by Aurizon against One Rail’s former US owner, Genesee & Wyoming, in 2019 alleging that it breached existing agreements when it arranged to sell the Australian rail assets to Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA) and Dutch Pension fund PGGM, is ongoing.

The lawsuit argues that Genesee & Wyoming provided better terms and conditions for the sale of its Australian rail business to Macquarie Group than it did to Aurizon after putting the rail assets on the block for $627 million.