Rothschild, Merrill, RBS to lead Australia sale

MELBOURNE, July 22 (Reuters) - Australia's Queensland state has picked Rothschild, Bank of America's (BAC.N) Merrill Lynch and RBS Australia (RBS.L) to advise on its planned A$15 billion ($12.2 billion) sale of infrastructure assets, the state government said on Wednesday.

The winners edged out pitches from Macquarie Group (MQG.AX), Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) and a joint bid from Lazard (LAZ.N) and UBS (UBSN.VX), sources close to the process said. The companies and a Queensland Treasury spokesman declined to comment.

Queensland state, a big mining region, said in June that it was going to sell five assets over the next three to five years to cut debt.

The assets are the Abbott Point Coal Terminal, Queensland Motorways Ltd, the port of Brisbane, Forest Plantations Queensland and Queensland Rail's coal transport arm.

"Working closely with the government, the consortium will now move quickly to define the scope of the sales," state Premier Anna Bligh said in a statement. ($1=1.225 Australian Dollar) (Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Jonathan Standing)