Sydney Airport sees $588m loss despite return to pre-COVID earnings

As reported by the Australian Financial Review, this is a significant jump from its 2022 EBITDA of $537 million, and is roughly on par with its pre-COVID earnings of $1.15 billion in 2019 and $1.28 billion in 2018.

Despite the soaring revenue and earnings, higher finance costs as well as depreciation resulted in a net loss for the airport of $588 million, though this was smaller than its 2021-22 loss of $943 million.

Sydney Airport delisted from the ASX in 2022 ahead of its $23.6 billion buyout by Sydney Aviation Alliance Holdings (SAAH) in what was the largest ever corporate takeover in Australian history.

The SAAH consortium, led by IFM Investors and Global Infrastructure Partners and also including QSuper and AustralianSuper, had been interested in buying Sydney Airport – one of Australia’s main international gateways – since July 2021, when it offered $22 billion in a bid knocked back by the board as “opportunistic”.

Australian Aviation’s Hannah Dowling reported at the time that SAAH in August 2021 raised its bid up to $22.8 billion, which was again swiftly rejected, causing the super funds to threaten to leave the negotiation table altogether. However, the alliance ultimately came back with a final offer of $23.6 billion, equating to $8.75 per share.

The Sydney Airport board agreed to the sale at this price in November 2021, which was later overwhelmingly approved by shareholders in February 2022.

The move was widely expected given a number of proxy firms had already advised shareholders to accept the deal, which was also cleared by both the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Foreign Investment Review Board.

The airport, which has held a monopoly on commercial aviation in Sydney, will face competition in 2026 when the new Western Sydney International Airport opens at Badgerys Creek.

Sydney Airport last year appointed former Transurban boss Scott Charlton as CEO, replacing Geoff Culbert.