Qantas nabs $800m in land sale

QANTAS has emerged as one of the biggest winners from the industrial property boom, reaping $802m from the sale of surplus land next to Sydney Airport from property funds manager Logos.

Under the deal Qantas has entered discussions with Logos about potential future development options for the sites they are acquiring including the creation of a dedicated precinct for the airline as well as the potential sale of an extra three hectares of land adjoining the 13.8 hectares of land being sold.

If an agreement is reached with Logos – which is backed by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Australiansuper – this has the potential to raise the total value of the deal to more than $1bn.

“We’ll use these funds to help pay down debt that we’ve built up during the pandemic,” said Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce.

“The strength of this sale and its impact on our balance sheet means we can get back to invest in core parts of our business sooner.

“Logos has put forward a number of proposals on how we could unlock further value from our land holdings in Mascot, which we will explore in detail.”

Mr Joyce said there was potential to work with Logos on creating a Qantas precinct as part of their redevelopment plans. It could see a new headquarters and a relocated training centre and distribution hub, right next to the airport, rather than being spread across different parts of Mascot as they are now.”

Once complete the purchase will smash records for industrial property and bolster Qantas as it is well ahead of initial expectations for the site which had been expected to draw bids of over $500m. The Sydney site being offloaded was among the most valuable in the country as it adjoins the airport.