Sydney Airport opens books set to back 236 billion super fund takeover

Sydney Airport says it will recommend its shareholders accept a $23.6 billion takeover offer from a group of superannuation fund suitors unless a better deal lands on its table.

The ASX-listed airport said on Monday that it would open its books to the Sydney Airport Alliance consortium - made up of IFM Investors, AustralianSuper and QSuper - after it increased its bid to $8.75 cash per share offer over the weekend. The airport’s shares closed at $8 on Friday.

Sydney Airport said it will tell shareholders to accept the deal. Credit:James Brickwood

The bidding consortium first made an offer of $8.25 per share (valuing the company at $22.2 billion) on July 5 and $8.45 per share (worth $22.8 billion) on August 16, but Sydney Airport’s David Gonski-led board considered both approaches too low to consider.

Sydney Airport said that “having taken advice”, it intended to give the consortium access to due diligence on a non-exclusive basis so it could make a binding offer, which would take around four weeks.

If the consortium does make an acceptable binding offer at $8.75 per share, “the current intention of the Boards is to unanimously recommend that securityholders vote in favour of the proposal in the absence of a superior proposal,” the company said.

The recommendation would also depend on an independent expert concluding that the deal was in shareholder’s best interests.

Sydney Airport has been hammered by the emergence of the Delta strain of COVID-19, with its traffic falling to just 2.5 per cent of pre-pandemic levels in July.

More to come

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