SkyCity nets $220m from Auckland carpark mega sale

SkyCity has reportedly sold its carparks to Macquarie. Photo/Natalie Slade

SkyCity Entertainment Group has sold all its Auckland carparks to Macquarie Group for $220 million but the NZX-listed business is yet to make any announcement to the stock exchange.

Graeme Stephens, SkyCity chief executive, this morning said he could not comment on any deal but "there will be an announcement and I don't want to comment in advance of that".

The Australian reported at midnight on the A$219m deal, citing DataRoom online.

Macquarie parks $210m in New Zealand property transaction was the headline in Australia and said adviser and financier Goldman Sachs was working on the deal set to be announced today.

Stephens last year announced a sale was on the cards.

SkyCity is Auckland's biggest single-site, inner-city private carpark owner.

It flagged that it could sell more than 3000 spaces, investing the returns in a big new hotel development which at one stage it also planned to sell - but has retained the Horizon Hotel, saying it was quitting the parks instead.

Stephens told more than 200 shareholders at last year's annual meeting that development of further new hotels was a focus of the business, with funds coming partly from Auckland carpark sales.

SkyCity has 1960 parks below its Auckland casino/hotel site and another 1327 are being built across Hobson St beneath the NZ International Convention Centre site, giving it control of 3287 spaces in total.

Some are leased to businesses including NZME which publishes the Herald.

Some Auckland city parking spaces have sold for more than $200,000 each, so last year, the Herald speculated that SkyCity's spaces could be worth $300m or more, although no figures were provided and no numbers or valuations have been released.

Stephens said last year: "There's an opportunity to build another hotel, more residential" in Auckland. "We have made more purchases in this precinct".

The business is also looking to "do more" in Queenstown", he said at the time.

An NZX announcement could be made on this around 8.30am today.