Auckland airport shares worth $773 mln on the block, term sheet shows (updated)

Auckland International Airport

04/12/2024 07:26

(Adds details of deal from paragraph 2)
    By Scott Murdoch and Himanshi Akhand
       Dec 4 (Reuters) - A near 10% stake in Auckland
International Airport  AIA.NZ  worth NZ$1.32 billion ($773.12
million) was being sold on Wednesday, as the city's council
moved to offload its remaining stake in the airport operator.
    The block trade had a floor price of NZ$8.08 per share,
according to a term sheet seen by Reuters. Investors were
invited to submit bids in NZ$0.01 increments, the term sheet
showed.
    Auckland International Airport earlier told the country's
stock exchange it had been notified that the Auckland Council
had started a process to sell its 9.71% stake in the company.
    There were 163.2 million shares being offered in the trade,
the company said.
    With the floor price of NZ$8.08, the stock was being offered
in line with the company's closing price on Tuesday.
    Last year, the Auckland Council lowered its stake in the
airport operator by about 7% after selling shares worth NZ$835.9
million.
    "We believe that the stake sale could be seen as a clearing
event for investors to focus more on the operating and
fundamental outlook for Auckland Airport," Citi analysts said.
    UBS is executing the block trade.
($1 = 1.7074 New Zealand dollars)

 (Reporting by Scott Murdoch in Sydney, Himanshi Akhand in
Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Muralikumar
Anantharaman)
 ((Himanshi.Akhand@thomsonreuters.com))