Dexus, JP Morgan in Melbourne Airport crash landing
How a botched share sale handed APAC's crown jewels to its competitors.
Between April 2024 and May 2025 the combined brains trust of fund manager Dexus and investment bank JP Morgan managed to destroy, by my estimate, around $2 billion dollars worth of shareholder value in Australia Pacific Airports Corporation (APAC), owner of Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport. The Dexus-JP Morgan double act can fairly lay claim to have managed one of the biggest transaction train smashes in living memory.
The full particulars of this insane mishap were laid bare in the judgement of Supreme Court of New South Wales Justice David Hammerschlag handed down last Friday.
In his judgement, his Honour outlined the means employed by both Dexus and JP Morgan as they sought to subvert the APAC shareholders' agreement and, along the way, hand over virtually all of APAC's most valuable trade secrets to the airport's commercial adversaries.
What Justice Hammerschlag did not say – but would be obvious to anyone engaged in the airline or airport business – is that Melbourne Airport has suffered a huge and immutable blow to its ability to maximise revenues and profits for the next decade, if not longer.
