Sydney Airport will fund the cash flow accretive transaction with a mix of debt and cash, receiving about $50 million of additional EBITDA a year. She said “the full benefits” of the store investment would be realised from mid-2016. This arises from the uncertainty as to whether Sydney Airport will exercise its right of first refusal to participate in the development and associated financing of this new airport, as well as the extended timeline for the development which is not expected to commence operations until mid-2020s. On the offer, she added: “In 2015 and 2016 Heinemann will introduce a new and innovative duty free experience”.
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Total traffic growth for the period was up +2.1% year-on-year.
Chinese nationals were again Sydneys fastest growing market, up +16.8% year to date.
“While Sydney Airport’s revenue from the terminal will be more exposed to variability in passenger volumes, we consider such exposure manageable, given that the airport is a gateway for worldwide passengers and residents in Australia’s most populated city”, says Ng. Australian travellers, the largest market at half of all global travellers, grew by a robust +2.1%.
Sydney Airport chief executive Kerrie Mather said almost half of Chinese visitors travel to Australia via Sydney Airport.
This resulted in the growth of total revenue of the airport by 4.6 percent to AU$594.7 million and gave underlying earnings a boost by 6.4 percent which shot up the figure to AU$488.3 million.
Alongside its results, Sydney Airport announced today that it would pay Qantas $535m to take control of Terminal 3 nearly four years ahead of its previous lease expiry.
“We are excited to now have 100% of our terminal footprint, to work closely with Qantas and from 2019 other airline partners using Terminal 3”. Qantas had held a 30-year lease on the terminal, which was due to expire on June 30, 2019. Priority usage includes a majority of the terminal’s gates, check-in and baggage facilities.
Property and vehicle rental revenue grew 4.8% to $101 million.
There are now three terminals at Sydney Airport: T1 Sydney worldwide Terminal, T2 Sydney Domestic Airport and T3 Qantas Sydney Domestic Airport.
“We now have certainty about our future operations in terminal 3 post-2019”.
Charges are expected to be higher at T3 because of a better standard of facilities.
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Sydney Airport paid an unfranked dividend of 12.5c, an increase on the final payout of 12c at the end of past year.
