The deal followed the sale of $2 billion worth of infrastructure assets by Australian Infrastructure Fund (AIX), which announced the deal last year and completed the sale to various entities earlier this year.
Following a pre-emptive rights process, under which existing stakeholders have the option of matching other bids, the Future Fund acquired AIX’s 29.7 per cent stake in the Perth Airport Development Group (PADG), which owns Perth Airport.
Other assets up for sale included stakes in Australia Pacific Airports Corporation (APAC), which includes Melbourne and Launceston Airports; Queensland Airports Limited, which has Gold Coast, Townsville and Mount Isa Airports; Airport Development Group, which owns Darwin, Alice Springs and Tennant Creek Airports; HOCHTIEF Airport Capital, a German vehicle which has small stakes in Sydney, Hamburg, Dusseldorf and Athens Airports, and Statewide Roads Limited.
AustralianSuper, which has grown its funds under management from $46 billion to $65 billion over the past 12 months, has made an application for preliminary discovery in relation to the Future Fund’s acquisition of the PADG stake.
The Future Fund said it will oppose the action.
AustralianSuper said it requested documentation from the Future Fund in relation to the allocation of the purchase price of the AIX assets so it can determine whether to pursue a claim arising from the sale of the AIX assets.
It said The Future Fund has refused to provide these documents.
“Accordingly, AustralianSuper has brought an application seeking pre-trial discovery of the documents in the Victorian Supreme Court,” the fund said in a statement.
It would not outline what it hopes to achieve or expects to discover, other than to say it is pursuing this matter “in the best interest of the fund’s two million members”.
The Future Fund, which also acquired the HOCHTIEF stake in the deal, said it denies that it has any liability to AustralianSuper in relation to the PADG acquisition and will vigorously defend any claim for relief should AustralianSuper decide to pursue a claim.
“By making an offer of $2 billion to acquire AIX’s assets and in the end securing around half of the total, this transaction unlocked value for AIX shareholders and other investors in the assets, which included a range of airport assets across Australia and internationally,” The Future Fund stated.
