The contract was awarded to the
consortium BrisConnections, composed of
Macquarie Group,
Thiess and
John Holland, beating two other consortia (North Connect and Northern Motorway). BrisConnections was announced as the preferred bidder on 19 May 2008, and the final contract was awarded on 2 June 2008. Conducted as a
public-private partnership (PPP), the financial aspects of the Airport Link project has been mired in controversy from the outset. Macquarie Group charged $110 million in fees for the financial engineering which used the equity from private investors to raise the necessary debt and planned to pay investor distributions from capital, an arrangement which resembles a
Ponzi scheme and has been ridiculed as the "
dead parrot model", after the famous Monty Python comedy sketch. Former Queensland Premier
Anna Bligh enjoyed a free holiday at the Sydney mansion of Thiess director
Ros Kelly just before the contract was awarded. Former Labor ministers
Terry Mackenroth and
Con Sciacca were paid a "success fee", (as government relations advisors) believed to be about $500,000, by BrisConnections after the consortium won the tender. BrisConnections was listed as a
unit trust on the
Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) via a $1.2 billion
initial public offering (IPO) of installment receipts (or
stapled securities) on 31 July 2008 (). This was the largest IPO in Australia in 2008 and the most disastrous. The value of initial $1 installments fell by 60 per cent on the first day of trading, and by late November had collapsed to 0.1c, the lowest possible price on the ASX. The dramatic price slide was largely due to the leverage risk associated with stapled securities. Among the institutional investors was the
Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC), which invested $25 million. The chairman of QIC is
Trevor Rowe, who is also the Chairman of BrisConnections and was awarded
Member of the Order of Australia in 2004 "for service to the investment banking sector and as a contributor to the formulation of public policy ... and to the community." It is believed that some of this negative market sentiment was in response to the traffic forecasts contained within the Product Disclosure Statement lodged by BrisConnections. The EIS previously lodged by government showed traffic forecasts in 2012 of 95,000 vehicles per day, rising to 120,000 motorists by 2026. The Product Disclosure Statement prepared by PBA provides forecast of 193,000 vehicles in 2012 rising to 291,000 vehicles by 2026. During the early period of the BrisConnections listing most of the securities were owned by institutional investors, however as the price collapsed many of these institutions divested their now worthless stock, including Macquarie Group. Most of these shares were taken up by retail investors who were unaware that two further $1 installments on the stapled securities were owing and faced financial ruin as a result. BrisConnections has threatened to sue these investors in order to raise the capital necessary to continue the project, while reducing dividends by 99 per cent. There are no further installments owning which means there are no further obligations on shareholders attached to the units. While promoting BrisConnections at their media event in April 2009, Premier Anna Bligh denied any responsibility for the fate of the "Mum and Dad" investors saying, "
it is not the role of the Queensland Government to underwrite private investment decisions made by people who were seeking to make a profit investing in the stock market". At this time, the
Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) belatedly sought to act on behalf of investors and to seek an independent report of BrisConnections' finances. BrisConnections was nearly wound up in April 2009 after the private company of one investor,
Nicholas Bolton, requisitioned a general meeting of members of the managing company. However, on the date of the meeting the proxies attached to Bolton's shares were exercised to against the resolutions, Bolton's company having earlier sold the proxy rights for $4.5 million to
Thiess-
John Holland Group and the contractor for the Airport Link project. Therefore, the special resolution fell short of the required 75% vote to pass and BrisConnections was allowed to continue operating under its current form. On 12 May 2009, 70% (278 million) of outstanding shares
defaulted on the second $1 instalment payment. Some shareholders transferred their shares off market to false identities, such as
Humphrey B. Bear, in order to avoid payment. An auction of shares in default failed to attract a bidder. In June, BrisConnections commenced legal action to recover the unpaid moneys. With Brisconnections launching legal claims against defaulting investors, controversial businessman
Jim Byrnes postured as a champion of small investors. The controversy featured prominently in Brisbane newspapers: The name 'BrisConnections' was played upon as a 'con', the project and ensuing farce being dubbed by the media as 'BrisCon'. In October, BrisConnections notified ASX it would stop pursuing defaulting investors. By early December 2009, the share price of the second $1 installments had collapsed to 0.1c. With little other interest in the "
toxic" stock at this time, the chief executive officer, Ray Wilson, paid $10 for 5,000 shares. Two other directors of BrisConnections also purchased share parcels of a similar size, helping to raise the share price to 0.5c by mid-December, however the share price had again collapsed to 0.1c by year's end. On 13 November 2012, BrisConnections was suspended from trading indefinitely, to pursue talks with lenders. On 19 February 2013, BrisConnections go into voluntary administration owing more than the value of the asset The board called in McGrathNicol as administrators and PPB Advisory as receivers for the $3.5 billion debt owed to a syndicate of banks led by
ANZ. Other banks in the syndicate include: BNP Paribas, United Overseas Bank, KBC Finance Ireland, Societe Generale, UniCredit, BOS International, Depfa Bank, DZ Bank, and Allied Irish Banks. In November 2015,
Transurban Queensland (of which Transurban owns 62.5%) announced the acquisition of BrisConnections and AirportlinkM7. The acquisition was finalised in April 2016. ==Construction==