Cash-rich Qantas is going on a buying spree

Australian flag carrier Qantas is considering a series of acquisitions to bolster its main operating businesses as part of its plan to spin-off separately listed companies and release billions of dollars of capital for its shareholders.

A newly created aircraft fleet leasing arm will become the first Qantas-controlled operation to be offloaded in the restructuring of its divisions.

Qantas investors could be rewarded with matching shareholdings in the new businesses or the payment of special dividends as the result of the expected windfall to be gained from the splitting up of the aviation group. However, the group intends to retain majority control of its corporate siblings.

The chief executive, Geoff Dixon, said Qantas would be transformed over the next two to three years as each new business took shape.

Unveiling a record net profitof US$590 million for the year ended Juine 30, the co-architect of the shake-up, finance director Peter Gregg said the move was being driven by the belief that the "sums of its parts are worth more than the whole".

Qantas has been pursuing reorganisation since 2003 and a year later launched the low-cost carrier Jetstar, which subsequently prompted a takeover bid by Airline Partners Australia eight months ago.

Qantas holiday travel agency business has joined the recently revealed list of operations, including its frequent flyer programme and its troubled freight division, as candidates for the new ownership structure.

As well as bringing in new equity partners such as Aeroplan of Canada for the frequent flyer programme that will soon include Jetstar's loyalty scheme, Qantas said it was considering strategic acquisitions for some of its other businesses. This is thought to include the possible purchase of the freight transport company of the trucking magnate Lindsay Fox to bolster Qantas's air freight division, which has found itself embroiled in an alleged price-fixing cartel with other international airlines.

Qantas is facing a fine of about $40 million by US regulators for its role in the scandal, which is likely to result in further penalties of tens of millions of dollars imposed by other countries investigating the airline cartel's activities.

However, the investigation is unlikely to delay Qantas's plans to farm out the freight division, given that the company indicated the alleged activities dated back to 1999 and the people involved had either been dismissed or had resigned.