Sydney Airport opens books as bid raised
- Reading on The Australian Financial Review
On September 14th, Sydney airport received an offer of $8.75 per share from IFM investors-led consortium last week. The proposal needs the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s approval after the investigation based on the Airport Act, which limits the foreign ownership of the airport to 49%.
The consortium includes New York-based Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), QSuper and Australian-Super. IFM owns 20% of Brisbane Airport and 25% of Melbourne Airport. QSuper holds a stake in Brisbane airport indirectly. One of the IFM’s member funds, Australian-Super, holds 5% of Perth Airport directly and 4.75% indirectly. If the bid succeeds, IFM and GIP would be the two biggest owners of Sydney Airport.
Since the pandemic broke out, Sydney Airport’s July domestic traffic slid 75% compared to the same time last year and was down 63% in the same month 2019. The total number of passengers was down by 36% in past six months and fell 91% in international passengers. In August, the interim net loss was $97.4Million compared to $53.6Million last year, and it didn’t pay a dividend. It is expected the traffic will be rebounded when the vaccination target hits Australia. Provided that travellers are confident about the ongoing open border, the domestic passengers would return to the pre-covid level in 2024, starting from December-Quarter.
