Rex to float?

[Sue Ridgepipe]

Heard briefly on the radio today Rex is looking at a partial float to raise some money for new planes.

Anyone have more info?

[Buster Hyman]

Oh, I thought you meant they were buying TT Line.

[Capt EFIS]

From "The Advertiser" 20th April 2005......

AUSTRALIA's biggest regional airline plans to launch a partial float later this year to fund expansion and buy new planes.

Regional Express is considering October-November as a likely time frame but says a firm decision will be made closer to the date.

"It is basically an in-principle decision to move forward so we can get all our ducks in a row," Rex managing director Geoff Breust said yesterday. "We'll make a final call closer to the date based on our performance and, obviously, what the market is like at the time."

News of the float came as Rex announced the addition of former transport minister John Sharp to its board and released revised figures for the 2004-05 financial year.

Despite surging fuel prices, the airline expects to make a $9 million pre-tax profit for the full financial year, up from $1 million the previous year.

Revenue is expected to be up 22 per cent to $132 million with passenger numbers growing 18 per cent to top 1 million.

The Rex board has yet to work out how much of the company will be floated and is still looking for legal and financial advisers.

But Mr Breust said the company's Singaporean shareholders wanted to retain majority ownership.

He said it was premature to say how much the airline was worth: "Obviously it is not a full float, but it will be of a level that will be sufficient for us to fund our capital requirements for the future growth."

"We have a fleet of aircraft where some are owned and some are leased, and part of the process will be to convert some of the leased aircraft to an ownership arrangement.

"The other part will be to acquire additional aircraft to effectively consolidate our services on our existing network and also look at the possibility of potential new markets."

Rex services 28 regional centres from Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide and will start flying from the Snowy Mountains Airport from June 10.

Meanwhile, Singapore Airlines reported that passenger load factors for the southwest Pacific fell 7.9 points to 71 per cent in March after the carrier increased services to Australia.

Overall, a 4.5 per cent increase in traffic lagged an 8 per cent rise in capacity to see the load factors fall 2.3 point.

Macquarie Airports reported strong March traffic growth across its portfolio. A 12 per cent rise in international traffic at Sydney combined with a 6.8 per cent increase in domestic and regional traffic to see overall growth of 8.5 per cent compared with last year.