While the door may have shut on Auckland International Airport increasing its shareholding in Queenstown Airport before June 30, it is not locked, with the company open to approaching the Queenstown Lakes District Council in the future.
The PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) report into the "fairness" of the strategic alliance between Queenstown and Auckland airports was welcomed by both parties yesterday, after it was finally made public.
In it, a section on the second tranche option - which could see Auckland increase its interests to between 30% and 35% - stated the subscription agreement provided an alternative option, which was for the airport to acquire shares directly from the council.
The council could receive a cash payment from the transaction, reducing or removing the need for Queenstown Airport Corporation to pay a dividend.
The report said the benefit of the "alternative structure clause" was allowing the three parties to agree on the most efficient means of increasing AIAL's shareholding.
Auckland Airport senior communications manager Richard Llewellyn told the Otago Daily Times yesterday the company had "always acknowledged we'd like to have a higher shareholding", to strengthen the strategic alliance.
While "now is not the time to have that discussion", an approach might be made to the council in the future.
There was no expiration date for the second tranche transaction, even though a joint statement from Auckland and Queenstown airports on Monday said the subscription agreement had been "cancelled".
"We have given an undertaking to the council ... any consideration would be on terms and of a process which they are comfortable with."
Mr Llewellyn said pending High Court action and community concern were factors in the decision to back down from the second tranche, but Auckland Airport was also mindful of the "pressure on the council in terms of the consultation process".
"We just found that this was becoming a distraction.
"There is nothing on the table [at the moment]."
Queenstown Airport Corporation chairman Mark Taylor said there was "no stopping" discussions between the council and Auckland Airport "at any time" if either party wanted to look at the outcomes contemplated by the alliance.
"Obviously, they have got to go through a public [consultation] process, but it just takes the pressure off having to do it before June 30."
Both airports welcomed the 73-page report, which traversed Queenstown Airport, its constitution, the July 2010 transaction, the regulatory environment within which it was made and the airport valuation.
Auckland Airport paid $6.91 a share for the first tranche of more than four million shares, which incorporated a discount of about 7.5% on the value of 100% of the shares, assessed by QAC and AIAL at the time at $7.47 per share.
The report said the discount was "relatively low" and the price per share relatively high for a non-controlling - albeit large - shareholding, and might "arguably, have included a strategic premium to gain a cornerstone stake".
The second tranche of shares would have cost $7.47 per share, plus a lump sum of $2.2 million.
The report found the value of Queenstown Airport had increased from $59.64 million at June 30, 2010 to $66.02 million at June 30, 2011.
Mr Taylor said the report "clearly supports the commerciality of the sale".
"The PWC analysis shows that Queenstown Airport negotiated a sale, which returned an above-market price for Auckland Airport's minority shareholding, and that only a buyer that identified strategic values would pay that price."
The report reinforced the decisions made by the Queenstown Airport board and "clearly states the deal was a good one for the principal shareholder, QLDC".
The report is available on the council's website or at council offices in Queenstown and Wanaka.
