The times are changing in Australia, where the airport privatisation procedure was put into place in the 1990s. That resulted in leases of up to 99 years for, in the main, the investment and pension funds that perceived long term value in them.
But latterly those funds have been reappraising their position in line with mergers and acquisitions in their own line of business, COVID-19 and its aftermath, and the realisation that they collectively had an overkill position in the airports sector.
So there have been some recent on-sales, including Queensland Airports, while others are being lined up.
The Queensland lease sale went to a consortium of a local company and the US private equity firm KKR.
Now Amsterdam and Madrid-based Ferrovial is reported to have put down its marker for Perth Airport, at which the lease is collectively owned by six funds, with a bid for 100% of the capital. Australian airports are full to the brim with such funds.
It is another example, following KKR, of foreign organisations moving in on the territory; although Ferrovial would, like that firm, have to find a local partner to satisfy Australian ownership rules.
Perth Airport has a lot going for it, and must be attractive to a company that seems to have exhausted its patience with Europe.
If the price is right (and it has been, in recent Australian deals) all the leaseholders could capitulate.
But Perth’s major USP (unique selling proposition) – direct flights to Europe – will soon come to an end.