Auckland airport shares worth $773 million on the block, term sheet shows

By Scott Murdoch and Himanshi Akhand

(Reuters) -A near 10% stake in Auckland International Airport 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)