Airport disaster averted

 

The Hobart Airport consortium (TGC) has survived another year, avoiding looming disaster by injecting more equity and offloading a sizable chunk of debt. The recently released 2012/13 financial statements have revealed how consortium members, including RBF with a 49.9% interest had to find another $121 million to refinance and reduce debt. Finance costs and management fees have strangled the consortium since inception. Dividends have been conspicuously absent in the past three years and capital expenditure dependent on more borrowings.

Hydro Tasmania: The fall guy?

 

Imagine a company taking over another company with a book value of $89 million ($346 million worth of assets less $257 million worth of liabilities) and just a few weeks later the Directors revaluing the assets downwards by $227 million and the liabilities upwards by $108 million and announcing the CEO was leaving as “the time was right for a change to take the business through its next phase and to provide long-term stability to the organisation”.

That’s what happened in June 2013 when Hydro Tasmania (HT) took over the Tamar Valley Power Station from its sister company Aurora Energy and CEO Roy Adair left shortly thereafter.