Dow Jones Newswires reported that Australia's biggest ports & rail operator Asciano Group may sell some of its assets as it reported a net loss for the year. It delivered a net loss of USD 182.1 million for the year to June 30th 2008. EBITDA, before significant items, increased by 10.1% YoY to USD 677.7 million in the period from June 15th 2007 to June 30th 2008.

It said that "For the July 1st 2007 to June 30th 2008 period, EBITDA before significant items was USD 652.9 million, in line with Asciano's previous market guidance."

Mr Mark Rowsthorn CEO of Asciano said that the company wanted a partner or partners that would continue to invest in the business and hoped to raise between 800 million and one billion dollars from asset sales. He added that "The decision on which businesses to monetize hasn't been reached yet. All businesses are going through an intensive capital planning process, and on the basis of finalizing those we'll have a clearer picture in terms of which businesses we will look at."

Mr Rowsthorn said that Asciano had received many approaches from parties interested in taking stakes in the group's assets but did not elaborate.

Asciano operates container ports in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Fremantle and auto, bulk and general cargo services across more than 30 ports in Australia and New Zealand. It is a major provider of coal and grain haulage and transports other bulk commodities through its Australia-wide Pacific National rail freight business.