Macquarie Airports (MAP) continues to report downbeat news.
Last month it was the poor traffic figures from European airports and Australia in February, yesterday the March figures were not too flash.
In fact its the third month of poor traffic figures from MAp, which is also reported to be trying to flog some of its holdings to raise cash.
The 35.5% stake in Bristol Airport in the UK is said to be a prime candidate, but buyers will be scarce at the prices MAp wants with at least one, perhaps two of the major airports in London to be sold.
Traffic at Sydney Airport was down 5.4% on the previous March period, with domestic traffic down 3.5% and international traffic (excluding domestic transfers) down 8.7% on the corresponding period in 2008.
That helps explain the Qantas capacity and staff cuts revealed last week.
Qantas explained that its international business travel was down sharply, but MAp’s figures would indicate that travel numbers generally are much lower.
It released figures showing changes in passenger mix for Sydney:
"China was the major market which grew (+11%) with traveller declines for Australia (- 11%), the UK (-13%), New Zealand (-9%), the US (-6%), Japan (-22%), Korea (- 16%), India (-4%), Canada (-10%), Germany (-5%) and France (-2%)."
MAp said traffic at Copenhagen was down 15.6%, Brussels was 14.7% lower and Bristol in the UK saw a fall of 22.8% on last year.
"In March, MAp’s airports continued to be impacted by the winter capacity reductions," chief executive Kerrie Mather said in a statement.
"Positively, the new summer schedules commenced at all of the European airports on March 29.
"The capacity reductions in these schedules represent a moderation over the just-completed winter schedules."
MAp said traffic in the current period across all airports had been affected by the timing of Easter, which shifted from March in 2008 to April this year, shifting international passengers from March to April.
Ms Mather said new budget airlines could help boost ticket sales, however.
"We are pleased to be welcoming Tiger Airways to Sydney Airport. They will commence a Sydney-Melbourne service in July, further enhancing passenger choice on that route," Ms Mather said.
"Copenhagen in particular should benefit from the new services from several low-cost carriers which more than replace the capacity lost when (the low-cost carrier) Sterling collapsed.
"European travel agencies and airlines indicate that ticket sales for the summer holiday period look reasonable."
Looking at the third downgrade for travel group, Flight Centre, and the more than 1,000 job cuts, it’s hard to find many players in air travel doing well.
MAp securities eased 5c or 2.65% to $1.84 on the ASX.
As is normal, shares in OneSteel, Australia’s second-biggest steel company, took a hammering yesterday after it relisted in the wake of completing round one of its cash raising.
The company said in a statement to the market that it had raised $584 million from institutional investors through a share sale at $1.80 each.
Of the new capital, $240 million came from an institutional placement, with a further $344 million coming from the institutional component of an accelerated non-renounceable entitlement offer, Sydney-based OneSteel said in a statement on Monday.
The shares fell 12.9% to $2.23; compared with the $2.56 they were trading at a week ago before being halted to allow a statement to be prepared on cuts and the capital raising.
The company said the proceeds raised through the retail component of the Entitlement Offer will be known next month.
But it isn’t expecting much in the way of support and in all the presentations selling the placement last week, OneSteel had factored in no retail take-up.
Under the Entitlement Offer, eligible shareholders can participate on a pro-rata basis to their existing holdings by subscribing for 2 new OneSteel ordinary shares (“New Shares”) for every 5 existing OneSteel ordinary shares owned, at a price of $1.80 per new share (“Entitlement”).
"The institutional component of the Entitlement Offer (“Institutional Entitlement Offer”) was well oversubscribed with strong demand from institutional investors,” the company said in the ASX statement.
"Existing eligible institutional shareholders took up more than 95% of the shares available to them as part of the Institutional Entitlement Offer. In allocating shares under the Placement, preference was given to existing institutional shareholders."
