The scandal of Hobart airport

Kim Booth
“There are serious concerns that an over-inflated price was paid for the Hobart Airport, using a significant amount of hard-working superannuants’ money, many of which are Tasmania’s public servants, and who deserve reassurance over the fate of their savings.” “The huge discrepancy between the paid price and the independent valuation raises serious concerns that retirement savings could have been put at risk, which warrants serious investigation and debate,” Mr Booth said.

INDEPENDENT HOBART AIRPORT VALUATION PUTS VALUE AT $101 MILLION – NOT $350 MILLION PAID
Kim Booth MP
Greens Member for Bass
Thursday, 20 November 2008
www.tas.greens.org.au

The Tasmanian Greens today released a leaked copy of the original bid for the Hobart International Airport, financial figures at the time of the sale, as well as releasing their own independent professional valuation which has found a staggering $250 million difference between the valuation and the amount paid by the Retirement Benefit Fund (RBF) and Gateway Consortium.

Greens Member for Bass, Kim Booth MP, said that a concerned public servant had leaked a copy of the original bid as they were worried about the use of superannuant money to pay the extraordinary amount of $350.5 million RBF and its Gateway Consortium partners paid to the government for the Hobart International Airport.

Mr Booth also said that the professional valuation by John Lawrence Pty. Limited, for which he paid, was based upon the financial figures contained in the leaked documentation, and at the time of the Airport’s disposal in December 2007.

“The John Lawrence valuation found that, “a fair and reasonable value of the airport business is therefore $89.6 million which together with the value of the undeveloped land of $11.5 million gives a total value of $101.1 million dollars”, which is a whopping $250 million difference between what was paid by the RBF,” Mr Booth said.

“The Greens had requested that the Bartlett government commission their own independent valuation, after eyebrows and concerns began to be raised over the extraordinary amount of $350.5 million especially by those whose retirement savings could have been used in the purchase, but Premier Bartlett refused to do so.”

“I then received a leaked copy of the original bid documentation plus the HIAPL Annual Report 2006-07, from within the public service, prompted by concerns relating to the security or otherwise, of retirement funds.”

“I was then able to send this material to Public Accountant firm John Lawrence Pty. Limited, requesting that an independent valuation from a perspective buyer’s prospective as at December 2007, which I am releasing publicly today.”

“It is of concern that so far the Bartlett government has evaded answering any question relating to the negotiation and sale process, or undertaken to guarantee that superannuants receive fair value for this use of their hard-earned monies.”

“There are serious concerns that an over-inflated price was paid for the Hobart Airport, using a significant amount of hard-working superannuants’ money, many of which are Tasmania’s public servants, and who deserve reassurance over the fate of their savings.”

“The huge discrepancy between the paid price and the independent valuation raises serious concerns that retirement savings could have been put at risk, which warrants serious investigation and debate,” Mr Booth said.

Attached:

1. John Lawrence Pty. Limited Valuation of Hobart Airport, Buyers Perspective as at December 2007. Commissioned by Kim Booth MP (4 pages).

2. Hobart International Airport (HIAPL) Original Bid – leaked document

3. HIAPL Annual Report 2006-07 – unpublished and leaked document.

Download these here:
Nov20__HIAPL_Annual_Report_2006-07_K_Booth_ATTACH3.pdf
Nov20_Independent_IHA_Sale_Valuation_K_Booth_ATTACH1.pdf
Nov20_Leaked_HIAPL_IM__K_Booth_ATTACH2.pdf