It was only a matter of time before cashed-up private equity firms turned their attention to aviation after picking lower-hanging infrastructure fruit.
What is striking about the Macquarie Bank and Texas Pacific’s A$10 billion-plus (£4.2 billion) tilt at Qantas, is that this is the first time private equity has been willing to tackle sizeable ownership and union hurdles.
British Airways is another potential target, with potential bidders likely to be private equity firms - perhaps teamed with ambitious airlines such as Emirates.
The industry, with the benefit of greater financial discipline, lower oil prices and limited supply of new planes, offers strong profit growth. Macquarie may enlist the help of its funds to overcome Qantas’ 25 per cent single shareholder limit but unions may prove more of an obstacle.
With Qantas more constrained by unions than BA, Macquarie and Texas’ approach will be a test case.
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However, given their combined expertise in aviation, infrastructure and oil trading, if anyone can pull it off, it should be these two.