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SYDNEY—Macquarie Airports, Australia’s biggest owner of
air terminals, rose in Sydney trading after saying it
will sell assets to fund a A$1-billion share buyback,
cut debt and acquire a stake in Mexican airports.
Macquarie Airports jumped 9.2 percent at the close in
Sydney, paring its slide this year to 24 percent.
The
shares have tumbled with Macquarie Group Ltd. listed
funds including Macquarie Infrastructure Group as the
global credit seizure cast doubt over the Sydney-based
group’s strategy of borrowing to buy assets and bundling
them into funds.
Macquarie Airports “has made a very positive response to
alleviate the situation in which many of these vehicles
find themselves in due to the state of the credit
markets,” said Rob Patterson, managing director of
Adelaide-based Argo Investments Ltd., which looks after
about $3.8 billion in stocks including Macquarie
Airports. “A year ago debt was good; now it’s not.
Airports is taking steps to address it, and that may
send a strong message to investors in the other funds.”
Macquarie Infrastructure, a manager of toll roads,
climbed 4.8 percent, paring its decline this year to 13
percent. Macquarie Communications Infrastructure Group
rose 3.2 percent.
Macquarie Airports said Wednesday it would seek
shareholder approval to sell a 27-percent stake in
Copenhagen Airports and 26 percent of Brussels Airport
to Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund 3 to help
finance a buyback and reduce debt.
The sale
of the airports, which the company expects will fetch
A$1.5 billion, will be a 49-percent increase on
Copenhagen’s purchase price and a rise of 47 percent for
Brussels.
Macquarie Airports will pay up to A$250 million to
redeem a portion of its hybrid securities, called
TICkETS, and plans to buy back up to A$1 billion of its
own shares, it said.
The
company bought a 5.6-percent stake in B shares of Grupo
Aeroportuario del Sureste SAB, Mexico’s second-largest
nonstate airport operator. Aeroportuario del Sureste,
known as Asur, operates nine airports in south eastern
Mexico, including Cancun.
“We
believe the actions that we are announcing today—deleveraging,
validation of asset valuations, a significant buyback of
Macquarie Airports securities and the identification of
an exciting investment opportunity—will drive
substantial security holder value,” chief executive
officer Kerrie Mather said in Wednesday’s statement.
The
company posted a loss of A$274.3 million in the six
months ended June 30, compared with A$939.2 million
profit a year earlier, it said. First-half sales rose 48
percent to A$1.2 billion.
Macquarie sold its stakes in Aeroporti di Roma and
Birmingham Airport Holdings Ltd. last year, prompting
the loss, spokeswoman Karen Halbert said in an
interview. The company also wrote down A$70 million in
the first half as the value of its stake in Japan
Airport Terminal Co. declined, Halbert said. Bloomberg |
