SYDNEY, Sept 8 (Reuters) - The Australian government on Tuesday called for first-round bids for corporate regulator ASIC's company registry arm, a deal that is expected to fetch up to $4 billion, the surest sign that it planned to sell the asset and advance its ambitious privatisation program.
In a statement, Minister for Finance Matthias Cormann said that after more than 30 interested parties registered to bid in the sale, he would give them until Oct. 19 to lodge a formal expression of interest.
The government decided to push ahead with the sale after a scoping study "found that there is an active and growing private market for operating sophisticated data services including databases of business information", according to the statement.
The sale will add billions of dollars to an economy scrambling to adjust to the end of a two-decade resources boom. However, the sale price will ultimately depend on whether the government increases the fees the business charges companies, a proposed change which has sparked accusations of double-dipping. ID:nL4N119187
The sale coincides with Australian government sales of A$17 billion worth of electricity assets in New South Wales state and of ports in several states, among other state-owned assets.
The fact that the government has opened bids for ASIC effectively confirms it has ruled out an initial public offering, a step it took with state insurer Medibank Private MPL.AX in November 2014. Since then, the Australian sharemarket .AXJO has fallen 6 percent, and the two biggest Australian IPOs of 2015 are trading below their issue price.
Cormann has said the government wants the buyer of the ASIC Registry, which keeps and dispenses a host of company data and operates separately from ASIC's regulatory activities, to upgrade its software and keep its operations in regional Victoria, 160 km (100 miles) north of the state capital Melbourne.
The government will keep ownership of the unit's data.
($1 = 1.4374 Australian dollars)