Atlassian billionaire Scott Farquhar and his dealmaking partner Kim Jackson have emerged as the new owners of Queensland Airports, with their $3 billion bid alongside global investor KKR trumping industry superannuation giant AustralianSuper.
Street Talk can reveal the deal valued QAL at about $3 billion and was signed at 5am on Thursday. The KKR-Skip consortium has emerged as the winning bidder after defeating the country’s biggest superannuation fund, AustralianSuper, and ASX-listed Dexus Group and its bid partner the Gold Coast Council. All three groups had submitted binding offers at Monday’s deadline.
It marks the first time that the $US550 billion-plus ($806 billion) KKR has invested in an airport across the world, since its founding 48 years ago.
Collapsed ASX-listed gold miner Calidus Resourcessent out stockbroker Petra Capital to raise up to $190 million at 1¢ a share, a whopping 91 per cent discount to its last traded price, on Thursday morning.
Best and worst
A late rally in the mining sector pushed the Australian sharemarket higher on Thursday as China pledged more stimulus measures to help the country meet its growth target.