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The Federal Court has granted Rex’s administrators an extension to finalise a sale of the airline.
EY Australia will now have until 5 December to wrap up the second sale process, which was slated to end on 30 June. It is the second extension to the administration period and comes as the administrator indicates potential buyers are waiting in the wings.
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In a circular to creditors last week, EY’s Sam Freeman said a sale or recapitalisation of Rex’s regional businesss as a going concern is “in the best interests of creditors and the group’s stakeholders”.
“The proposed extension of the administration also sees the almost one thousand Rex employees remain engaged in work, there is ongoing work for continuing suppliers of Rex and critical flight services to regional Australia are maintained,” he said.
In a separate ASX release last week, the administrators said they were looking to narrow a field of “well-funded” bidders who “see real value in the business and its future”.
“We will now spend the coming weeks facilitating in-depth bidder engagement with the stakeholders of the business and work closely with the narrowed bidder field in the lead up to finalising and documenting a transaction,” they wrote.
“The participation of all interested parties in the process has generated the competitive tension we have sought and which is important in a process such as this, and we are in a strong place when it comes to delivering the best possible commercial outcome for all creditors and to see a strong and sustainable Rex emerge from this process.”
One bidder, Renaissance Partners, has again objected to its exclusion from the sale process, saying administrators had “accepted the bona fides” of its plan before “inexplicably turning its back on the rescue bid”.
Andrew Cochrane, executive director of Renaissance, said the delays are costing taxpayers money.
“We tabled a binding offer in October 2024, capable of returning Rex to normal operations by the end of that year without any Government money,” he said.
“Yet by April 2025, having reviewed our detailed capability submission, they formally invited us into the second process, illustrating our bid is credible – to suggest otherwise simply doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.”
The federal government has previously indicated it would look into purchasing Rex itself if the current sale process falls through, making it the first nationalised airline in Australia since the privatisation of Qantas in the 1990s.
EY Australia has sold the airline’s aeromedical division, Pel-Air, to Japan-owned Toll Aviation and was in November reportedly looking to sell Rex’s flight school in Wagga Wagga. FIFO airline National Jet Express has been snapped up by former Rex executive chairman Lim Kim Hai.
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says:If there are potential buyers waiting in the wings as is claimed, how about open the curtains and let them come on stage and perform. Something aint right here.