A Chinese government enterprise has bought Australian shipping pallet provider Loscam from private equity group Affinity at almost triple the amount the business changed hands for five years ago.

The Hong Kong-based China Merchants Group, one of the 10 largest state-owned Chinese companies with interests in transport, finance and property, did not disclose how much it had paid for Loscam, but the amount was understood to be about US$602 million, almost three times as much as the $209 million Affinity paid for the business in 2005, reported the Australian.

Loscam is the second-largest pallet provider in the Australian market, behind Brambles-owned global leader Chep, and is the leading player in Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, The Philippines, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Malaysia.

Loscam chief executive Mark Daniel, who will continue to manage the business alongside the rest of the existing management team, said Affinity had received firm offers from four private equity investors as well as CMG, before final bids were lodged by three potential buyers.

"Interest has certainly come back to the private equity trade; they either believe there's value out there or that we can continue to grow," he said.

"We had gone down the path of looking at a float, written a prospectus, but we had very good offers from two private equity houses and China Merchants."

 Source: www.cargonewsasia.com