US giant swoops on Ayers Rock Resort
Ayers Rock Resort will be back in private hands following a c$300 million sale to Journey Beyond, controlled by New York-based equity giant Crestview Partners’ Hornblower.
Vendor, the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation, via a predecessor, also outlaid $300m – but in 2010.
That seller, GPT held it 27 years; via the Voyages platform, the asset manager paid the Northern Territory Government and a syndicate, Advent, $220m.
Ayers Rock Resort opened three years earlier, in 1984, with the Yulara Town Centre and Sheraton Hotel, now Sails in the Desert, in response to a lack of guest accommodation in the area.
Any deal would come four years since Journey Beyond – then backed by Quadrant Equity Partners – divested the Eureka Skydeck in Melbourne’s Southbank.
It holds other experiential tourism assets in Australia though including The Ghan and Indian Pacific.
Ayers Rock Resort
About 25 kilometres from Uluru, the sprawling resort contains six zones, with 3, 4 and 5 star rated accommodation, 14 restaurants, an IGA supermarket and service station.
Visitation has been lower since the pandemic, seeing ILSC write down the value. It also depreciated the property (by c$85m) by 2014.
Resort employees are expected to be protected under the new ownership.
Proceeds will be tipped into other economic ventures.
Four and a half years ago, Sam Arnaout’s Iris Capital bought Alice Springs’ Lasseters complex, with casino and 205-suite IHG managed hotel.
That deal, with Singapore listed Lasseters International Holdings, was worth c$105m.
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