Transport infrastructure company said on Wednesday that TPG Capital and Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) had renewed their interest in it earlier this week.
TPG and GIP first expressed an interest in acquiring Asciano in August, at $4.40 per security but the offer was only indicative and non-binding.
Asciano's securities closed five cents higher at $2.75 on Wednesday.
Poole said Asciano had received a telephone call from TPG and GIP on Monday and they had told him that they may seek to have further talks with Asciano in the future, but nothing had been agreed.
"They didn't ask for anything. All they suggested to me was that they, at some point in the future, may like to have another discussion - and we left it at that," Poole told reporters after Asciano's annual general meeting on Wednesday.
"They have said to me that they do no want to make a hostile move and that they want to work in a friendly way with the company."
Asked if $4.40 per security looked good at the moment, Poole said: "We're living in unusual times, and our job is not to react to short-term movements in the stock price.
"Our job is to look through to the medium to long-term value of our assets, and we think that the medium to long-term value of these assets is north of $4.40."
Poole earlier told angry securityholders that the board was acutely aware of, and extremely concerned by, the fall in the company's market price, but the board believed the current price in no way reflected the underlying value of Asciano's businesses.
When Asciano started trading on the Australian stock exchange last year after its demergerfrom Toll Holdings Ltd, the price was around $10 per security. It closed five cents higher at $2.75 on Wednesday.
"We don't think that share price in any way reflects the underlying value of our businesses," Poole said.
Poole told reporters that Asciano was committed to monetising part of some group's assets to raise fresh capital to help fund growth and reduce debt.
The new capital would be secured against a minority shareholding in one or more of Asciano's businesses.
"Our expectation is that we'll keep 100 per cent of our assets together," Poole said.
"The process is underway. We're taking to a range of investors and they're investors that like long-term, stable income streams and may want to be a shareholder in one of our businesses in the future."
Asciano hoped to update the market around Christmas.
Poole said most of Asciano's businesses had grown over the September quarter compared with the previous corresponding period.
"We've got reasonable confidence into Christmas, beyond that we don't have visibility."
Poole said there were two areas of softness of the September quarter.
Growth in container volumes through ports had slowed from the record rates over the previous two years, and car movements had also slowed given the lower number of cars being imported.
Poole told shareholders that Asciano management was in talks with a number of existing and new customers to haul coal on Asciano's Pacific National rail operations, and Asciano expected to increase contracted volumes from 2010.
There was also no short-term risk to Asciano's ongoing ability to fund its debt obligations.
Asciano chief executive Mark Rowsthorn said the overall business was continuing to track in line with Asciano's expectations despite the uncertain economic environment.
Rowsthorn said a key factor determining the full year performance would be the trend in consumer sentiment and therefore consumer spending over the Christmas period.
Source: AAP NewsWire