SYDNEY: An Australian-led consortium with Chinese investment won a 50-year-lease Monday on the nation`s biggest container and cargo port for Aus$9.7 billion (US$7.3bn), the latest maritime asset to be privatised.

The Port of Melbourne, which deals with more than 3,000 ships annually, was snapped up by a consortium including Australia`s second-largest wholesale funds manager the Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) and multinational firm Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP).

The Australian newspaper reported that GIP was acting partly on behalf of China`s sovereign wealth fund CIC Capital, which it said had effectively secured 20 per cent of the port.

A source close to the consortium confirmed to AFP that CIC Capital was represented by GIP but would not reveal the size of its investment.

The decision comes just months after the government introduced tougher rules for the sale of major Australian state-owned infrastructure to private foreign investors following concerns over a 99-year lease for the Port of Darwin to China`s Landbridge Group.

The new rules, introduced in March this year, state that sales of crucial infrastructure to private foreign investors must be subject to a formal review by Australia`s foreign investment advisory body.

China was also part of an Australianled consortium that secured a 98-year lease in 2014 for the world`s biggest coal export port in Newcastle.

That deal followed the long-term lease of Sydney`s Port Botany and Port Kembla further south as a growing number of major Australian ports are privatised.

`The Port of Melbourne is core infrastructure it is a critical and strategic piece of the Victorian and Australian logistics supply chain,` said QIC Global Infrastructure chief Ross Israel.

`Our consortium has developed a long-term vision and business plan.

Leveraging our global port and regulated asset experience, QIC is focused on delivering long-term stewardship and improvements to the port and for its users.

The price tag was well above expec-tations, with the Victorian state government initially seeking Aus$6bn for one of Australasia`s largest maritime hubs for containerised, automotive and general cargo.

`The lease, worth in excess of $9.7bn, reflects strong bidder interest and the port`s value, as the biggest container and cargo port in the country, the state government said.

Another consortium includingAustralian fund manager IFM Investors and Dutch pension fund APG Asset Management was also in the running.

A large chunk of the proceeds of the sale, which has been approved by regulators, will be spent on regional and rural infrastructure projects.

`Regional Victoria will be big winners from the lease, with significant funding to support projects they need, like better roads, and irrigation and energy projects,` said state Treasurer Tim Pallas.

`Leasing the port reinforces Victoria`s position as the freight and logistics capital of Australia and will make a great port even better.

Chinese pay up for Australia reef disaster: The owners of a Chinese ship that ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef in 2010 agreed to pay AustraliaAus$39.3m ($29.6m) on Monday, in a settlement dismissed by conservationists as `woefully inadequate`.

The fully-laden coal carrier Shen Neng 1 hit a shoal in April 2010, leaking tonnes of heavy fuel oil and threatening an ecological disaster.

While a catastrophe was avoided, the huge ship gouged a three-kilometre (1.8-mile) scar in the coral and was stranded for nine days before salvageworkers refloated it.

The ship`s owner, Shenzhen Energy Transport Co Ltd, and its insurer refused for six years to accept responsibility to make restitution before striking Monday`s out-of-court settlement.

`Our ongoing actions to pursue funds to clean up the pollution sends an unambiguous signal that damage to the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area is unacceptable,` said Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg. He added the settlement showed Australia would `use every available means to pursue ship owners who are negligent in causing damage to the reef`.

But Greenpeace Australia slammed the deal, calling it `woefully inadequate`. `The government has said the full clean-up will cost more than Aus$140m so to settle for such a small figure is disappointing,` said Greenpeace`s Pacific reef campaigner Shani Tager.-AFP