Bankers begin the task of unravelling the Rex empire with asset sales

Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport

Sep 22, 2024 – 5.47pm

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Almost two months after Regional Express called in administrators, the regional airline’s empire is being broken up and sold off. First on the block is its disparate portfolio of property which would be of little interest to others in the industry, the players most likely to end up with the operating business and its fleet of Saab 340 aircraft.

As The Australian Financial Review has reported, Rex’s collapse was presaged by a bitter boardroom stoush which pitted the airline’s chairman, former Howard government minister John Sharp, against its biggest shareholder, businessman Lim Kim Hai.

Sarah Thompson has co-edited Street Talk since 2009, specialising in private equity, investment banking, M&A and equity capital markets stories. Prior to that, she spent 10 years in London as a markets and M&A reporter at Bloomberg and Dow Jones. Email Sarah at sarah.thompson@afr.com

Kanika Sood is a journalist based in Sydney who writes for the Street Talk column. Email Kanika at kanika.sood@afr.com.au

Emma Rapaport is a co-editor of the Street Talk column. Prior to that, she was a markets reporter at The Australian Financial Review. Connect with Emma on Twitter. Email Emma at emma.rapaport@afr.com