In December 1987, the Commonwealth sold the shipyard to the winning consortium, Australian Marine Engineering Consolidated (AMECON), which consisted of partners Eglo Engineering (Services) Ltd, Australian Shipping Industries Ltd (ASI) and International Combustion of Australia Ltd (ICAL) for $100 million and to finish two older style Perry class frigates, already partly under construction.
Transfield then decided to make takeover bids on the ASX for all three partners in AMECON. Transfield at that point controlled only about 20 per cent of Eglo's shares. After a long-running and bitterly contested battle, by August 1988 Transfield was successful in controlling AMECON. The only competition now for the ANZAC frigate project was the Newcastle consortium.
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