Bankstown & Camden Airports up for sale

BAC Holdco Pty Limited, which holds the leasehold interests over both Bankstown and Camden Airports, has announced it will sell the two major General Aviation airports.

BAC Holdco Pty Limited (BACH) is a consortium of several institutional investors which purchased the newly privatised Bankstown, Camden and Hoxton Park airports as a package back in 2003. Hoxton Park was closed and the land converted to residential purposes three years ago.

BACH announced late yesterday its intention to commence preparations for the sale of the two airports. Bankstown and Camden were privatised in 2003 and are held under long-term leases (85 years remaining) with the Commonwealth Government.

The sale process is expected to formally commence within the first quarter of this year, and the airports will be offered for sale together. BACH says operations at the airports will be unaffected by the sale process.

“The sale will provide a unique opportunity to acquire key commercial, industrial and aviation infrastructure assets within the Sydney Basin with stable long-term cashflows and potential for growth,” BACH said in a press release.

That's all reasonable, but the truth is that politically motivated constraints on development prohibited the realisation of the potential of Bankstown Airport (the more valuable asset). BACH is in effect admitting that it has lost hope of extracting full value from the investment. 

Potential purchasers are likely to be aware of the diminished value of the principal asset; but there may be some who believe that the political interference in Bankstown's development can be reduced over time.

Established in 1940 in Sydney's west, more than 170 aviation, retail, commercial and industrial tenants now occupy Bankstown Airport's (YSBK) 313-hectare site. YSBK is a multi-use General Aviation (non-passenger) facility.

Further southwest of YSBK, the 196-hectare Camden Airport (YSCN) was established in 1935 as a private aerodrome and now serves as a recreational aviation hub for gliding, ballooning and light aircraft.