An increasing number of overseas investors took an interest in Australian mid-market transport companies over the past year.
The latest Pitcher Partners analysis of Dealogic data on mid-market mergers and acquisitions saw transport emerge as one of the key sectors for overseas investing in 2025, sitting alongside perennial favourites in mining and technology.
Overseas investment deals reached triple figures in 2025, with 113 mid-market deals involving an overseas entity recorded. This signified a rise of almost 50 per cent higher than in 2024, with deal values surpassing $9.3 billion in total.
The transport industry was the main influence on this rise, lifting from what Pitcher Partners deems as a “minor player” in 2024 into a top five mid-market sector in 2025 courtesy of 17 deals worth $2.1 billion.
In the wider transport sector, this includes Italy’s Salcef Group acquiring Pilbara Rail Maintenance for $95.6 million and SRG Global’s $180 million takeover of Total AMS in October.
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For the local bus sector, this also relates to Keppel Infrastructure Trust acquiring Ventura for $600 million and US-based asset management firm TPG acquiring a 70 per cent equity interest in Kinetic in November.
The Pitcher Partners analysis saw there were 307 transactions across the mid-market (deals valued between $10 million and $250 million) in 2025, falling just shy of $20.9 billion in total.
Pitcher Partners Melbourne partner James Beaumont says deal volumes surpassed 300 for the first time since 2022, with values also climbing by 14.4 per cent compared to 2024.
“Several factors were at play, including the easing in inflation in the first part of the year and a lowering of interest rates which led to a return in confidence to trade and financial buyers,” he says.
“The new merger reform rules, which came into effect on January 1, 2026, may also have led to an increase in dealmaking at the back end of 2025.”
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