After 14 years of holding shares in Helloworld Travel Limited, Qantas has sold its remaining stake in the travel agency group.
As it looks to focus more on its post-pandemic recovery, Qantas sold its 12.4 per cent shareholding in HLO for around $33 million.
The airline has held a stake in Helloworld since the group was born out of a merger between Qantas Holidays and Jetset Travel in 2008, but its shareholding has steadily reduced through various transactions.
Helloworld’s own evolution has also impacted the flying kangaroo’s interest in the company over the years.
“Our stake in Helloworld has reduced over several years and now is the right time for us to exit as shareholders,” Qantas Group chief financial officer Vanessa Hudson said.
“We’ve announced some major investments this year as we focus on what is core to the Group going forward, including fleet renewal, growing our network and a successful expansion into the e-commerce holiday booking space with TripADeal.”
Helloworld CEO Andrew Burnes said the sale “significantly expands our free float and we thank Qantas for their long-term investment in the company and in particular thank Andrew Finch, Qantas’s General Counsel, for his outstanding service as a Director of Helloworld for the past 6 years”.
“We also welcome to the register a range of institutions who participated in the book build. Many of these are existing shareholders in the business however there are some new shareholders, most of whom we have presented to over recent months and it is exciting to see their belief in the business and the services we offer the travelling public in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.”
CFO promotes travel trade channel
“We’ll continue to have a very strong relationship with Helloworld as a trade partner, and travel agencies in general remain an important pillar of how millions of trips are booked every year,” Hudson said.
On 1 July 2022, Qantas announced it would reduce its commission paid to travel agents for all Qantas international fares (excluding trans-Tasman) from 5 per cent to 1 per cent.
With a share sale price of $1.72 per share, the transaction will be included in Qantas’ FY23 accounts.
In late 2021, Qantas sold almost 14 hectares of industrial land near its Sydney headquarters for $802 million.
Passengers evacuated
In other Qantas news, passengers were forced to evacuate a QantasLink plane in Sydney after flames were seen near the tyres upon landing.
According to the ABC, all 24 passengers exited the Dash-8 plane “safely through the front stairs”, chief operating officer Petrea Bradford said in a statement.
“Passengers on a flight from Lord Howe Island to Sydney were evacuated following reports of flames near the tyres after the aircraft had landed safely,” she stated.
Last week, Qantas defended its record after consumer group Choice gave the airline a “Shonky Award”.
On Friday, the national carrier announced that its on-time performance had improved to around, or better than, pre-COVID levels.
