Canadian pensions bid $6.6B for toll road operator

Australia's biggest toll road operator has rejected a $6.6 billion takeover bid from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

The offers value the Transurban Group at 20 per cent above its recent share price.

Transurban has replied that the offer was "incomplete" and it is willing to engage on "bona fide proposals."

The two Canadian pension funds already hold 28 per cent of Transurban. Its holdings include the Pocahontas 895 in Virginia and the Hills M2 in New South Wales, Australia's most populous state.

The move follows another high-profile bet on transportation assets. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. bid $44 billion on Nov. 3 for the three-quarters stake in railway Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. it didn't already own.