UPDATE: Toll Has Moved On From Potential Brambles Tie-Up

Toll Holdings Ltd. (TOL.AU) Chief Executive Paul Little said Monday he has moved on from any potential tie-up with Brambles Ltd. (BXB.AU).

Little said Toll was interested in doing a deal with Brambles, an Australian company that operates a global pallet business to transport goods, but that the deal couldn't work without Brambles' compliance.

"We were only ever interested in Brambles had Brambles been of the mind that by joining forces with our company that the two could create a better value offering in the marketplace," he said. "We believe Brambles are not of that view and we're quite happy to accept that outcome and move on."

In August 2007, Brambles identified Toll and its former port and rail infrastructure operator Asciano Ltd., as holders of stakes in the global logistics group. While Toll assured them it was not working in concert with Asciano, the move sparked talk the pair were eyeing a takeover bid for Brambles. While Toll held just 5.1 million shares or around 0.3%, Asciano increased its stake to as much as 4.1% before abandoning any plans for a bid in December 2007 as it looked to address its stretched balance sheet.

Toll said last month it had disposed of its stake in Brambles during the financial year to June 2009. A spokesman for Brambles declined to comment.

Little said he is looking to grow the company from being an Australian-focused business into a pan-Asian concern.

Toll's performance in August, he said, has outpaced expectations, as had been the case in July. The company said last month that it was "very pleased" with July's performance.

Within five years, Little expects 50% to 60% of the transportation and logistics company's earnings to come from offshore operations, he told reporters on the sidelines of a Bank of America-Merrill Lynch conference in New York.

Little said Toll is "quite ambitious" in its search for acquisitions that will add scale in the global forwarding business. That includes air and ocean freight forwarding.

North America, Europe and the Middle East are all regions in which Toll is "sub scale" in global forwarding, he said.

Toll transports goods by employing road fleets, warehousing, ships, air freight capacity, ports and rail.

-By Cynthia Koons, 347-522-0894; [e-mail] and Veronica Dagher; 212-416-2261; [e-mail]

(Veronica Dagher in New York and Bill Lindsay in Sydney contributed to this report.)