Who Owns Qantas Airways: The Largest Shareholders Overview
Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) is an Australian-based airline that makes money mainly through passenger air transportation, but a small part of its revenue also comes from its freight service. Let’s look at who owns Qantas Airways and who controls it.
Qantas Airways’ largest shareholder is Pendal Group, an Australian investment manager, which owns a 5.2% share. Qantas Airways’ ownership is quite dispersed, and no other shareholder breached the 5% threshold as of December 2022. Asset manager BlackRock was hovering just below 5%.
 Qantas Airways's Largest Shareholders (Dec 2022)
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| Shareholder | Ownership | Voting Power | |
|---|---|---|---|
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Pendal Group | 5.2% | 5.2% |
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Other | 94.8% | 94.8% |
| Listed are shareholders holding >5% of any share class or notable in other ways | |||
 Source: Annual Report |
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In this article, I will dive more into who owns Qantas Airways and who controls it. I will show you who Qantas Airways’s largest shareholders are, how many shares and votes they have, and how much their stake is worth.
If you are interested, you can also explore who owns other companies like Tesla, Volkswagen, Ferrari, Shell, or Lockheed Martin.
📃 Who Owns Qantas Airways?
Qantas Airways is owned by its shareholders. The largest one is Australian investment manager Pendal Group, which owns 5.2% of the company. No shareholder owns more than 5% of Qantas Airways.
- It was the only institution that officially reported holding more than a 5% stake. Pendal is investing money on behalf of its clients, who are the ultimate owners.
- Recently, Pendal Group was acquired by Perpetual Limited, another Australian asset manager. The acquisition was completed in 2023.
- Note that Pendal Group’s last filing, when they announced over a 5% stake, was from 2019. Australian rules do not require an annual update of ownership stakes, even if it is over 5%. The update is needed only if voting power changes by one percentage point vs. the previous filling or drops below 5%.
As of December 2022, no other company reported holding more than 5% of Qantas Airways. However, it can be seen from submitted notices that few other asset managers are close to this threshold. For example, BlackRock is very often filing a notice of 5% ownership and then later announcing a drop below 5%. Based on that, it seems that among top Qantas Airways shareholders are mainly asset managers.
When you look at the list of shareholders in Qantas’ annual report, you will find that the largest shareholder is HSBC Custody Nominees (Australia) Limited, followed by J.P. Morgan Nominees Australia Limited, followed by other nominees companies. These entities are technically shareholders of Qantas but are holding these shares on behalf of their clients and do not have, in most cases, the right to dispose of the shares or to execute voting power. Therefore, this list is irrelevant as it does not tell us anything about company owners.
Qantas Airways is a public company, and the government is not known to have significant ownership. However, the Australian government wants to keep the ownership in the hands of Australian companies. Therefore it is required that foreign shareholders cannot, in the aggregate, hold more than 49% of Qantas shares.
Qantas Airways has quite a long history. It was founded in 1920, later nationalized, and has been a publicly listed company on Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) since 1995 (Ticker: ASX: QAN).
- There are also ADRs linked to Qantas shares traded on the US OTC market under the symbol QABSY. One ADR is equivalent to ten(10) ordinary shares.
Qantas Airways Limited is incorporated in Australia, and its headquarters are in Mascot, Sydney, New South Wales (AU).
🎮 Who Controls Qantas Airways (ASX: QAN)?
Qantas Airways’s shareholder with the largest voting power is Australian investment manager Pendal Group, which holds 5.2% of all votes. It is followed by other asset managers, but none of them had over 5% as of December 2022.
Qantas Airways has only one class of outstanding shares, with one vote per share. Therefore, there is no difference between the shareholder’s ownership and voting power.
The ownership of Qantas Airways Limited is quite dispersed, and the main shareholders are asset managers investing money on behalf of their clients. None of them control the company individually, but together they have a big influence.
Qantas Airways’s dispersed ownership creates conflicts of interest between Qantas Airways’s management, asset manager’s management, and the ultimate underlying investors that asset managers represent. In situations like these, insiders of the large asset manager shareholders and insiders of the company hold significant power over it.
Qantas Airways’s insiders that have influence over the company are CEO Alan Joyce, chairman of the board Richard Goyder, and other board members and executives.
There are also several protectionistic measures in place to keep Qantas under Australian control:
- At all times, at least two-thirds of the directors must be Australian citizens.
- Substantial foreign shareholders, in the aggregate, may not vote to appoint any more than one-third of the directors.
- At all times, the person presiding as chairperson at a meeting of directors must be an Australian citizen.
Qantas Airways also has in place a classified board system where board members are nominated usually for three(3) year terms, and each year third of the board term expires. This is another measure that makes it harder for outside investors to take over the company quickly.
🗳️ Breakdown of Qantas Airways’s Outstanding Shares and Votes by Top Shareholders
Qantas Airways Limited had a total of 1,817 million outstanding shares as of December 2022. The following table shows how many shares each Qantas Airways’s large shareholder holds.
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Qantas Airways's Outstanding Shares by Shareholder
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| In millions of shares as of December 2022 | ||||
| Shareholder | Class A | Total | % Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Pendal Group | 95 | 95 | 5.2% |
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Other | 1,722 | 1,722 | 94.8% |
| Total (# millions) | 1,817 | 1,817 | 100.0% | |
| Listed are shareholders holding >5% of any share class or notable in other ways | ||||
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Source: Annual Report |
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There were 1,817 million votes distributed among shareholders of Qantas Airways Limited. The table below shows the total number of votes for each large shareholder.
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Qantas Airways's Vote Control by Shareholder
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| In millions of votes as of December 2022 | ||||
| Shareholder | Class A | Total | % Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Pendal Group | 95 | 95 | 5.2% |
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Other | 1,722 | 1,722 | 94.8% |
| Total (# millions) | 1,817 | 1,817 | 100.0% | |
| Listed are shareholders holding >5% of any share class or notable in other ways | ||||
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Source: Annual Report |
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💵 Breakdown of Qantas Airways’s Market Value by Shareholder
The following table summarizes how much is each shareholder’s stake in Qantas Airways Limited worth.
However, keep in mind that a stake in Qantas Airways could be just one part of their portfolio, and their total worth could be bigger, thanks to other investments. It could also be lower if they have debts.
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Qantas Airways's Market Value by Shareholder
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| Market value in billions $ as of December 2022 | ||||
| Shareholder | Class A | Total | % Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Pendal Group | $0.4 | $0.4 | 5.2% |
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Other | $7.0 | $7.0 | 94.8% |
| Total ($ billions) | $7.4 | $7.4 | 100.0% | |
| Listed are shareholders holding >5% of any share class or notable in other ways | ||||
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Source: Annual Report |
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Let’s now look at each Qantas Airways shareholder individually.
📒 Who Are Qantas Airways’s Largest Shareholders?
Let’s now go through the list of the largest shareholders of Qantas Airways Limited one by one and look at who they are, how many shares they own, what is their voting power, and how much is their stake in Qantas Airways worth.
#1 Pendal Group (5.2%)
Pendal Group is the largest shareholder of Qantas Airways, owning 5.2% of its shares. As of December 2022, the market value of Pendal Group’s stake in Qantas Airways was $0.4 billion.
Pendal Group owned 95 million shares in Qantas Airways and controlled 95 million shareholder votes as of December 2022.
Pendal Group Limited is an investment manager focusing on active management both for individual and institutional clients. Pendal is headquartered in Sydney, Australia, but is also active in other countries, including the US.
In 2023, Pendal Group was acquired by Perpetual, another australian investment manager.
🧱 Who and When Founded Qantas Airways?
Qantas Airways was founded as Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Ltd (Q.A.N.T.A.S) in 1920 by Paul McGinness, Hudson Fysh, and Fergus McMaster, who was the first Chairman of the Board.
📅 Qantas Airways’s History Timeline
These are selected events from Qantas Airways’s history:
- 1920: Qantas was founded by Paul McGinness, Hudson Fysh, and Fergus McMaster.
- 1947: Australian government acquires Qantas for market value and thus nationalizes the company. Co-founder Hudson Fysh was the only manager of the company who supported this -move, and he became chairman, succeeding co-founder McMasters.
- 1952: Qantas co-founder Paul McGinness dies in Perth.
- 1955: Co-founder Hudson Fysh retires as managing director after controversies with the rest of the Qantas board but stays on as Chairman.
- 1966: Co-founder Hudson Fysh retires as Chairman of Qantas.
- 1992: Federal Cabinet announces Qantas’ $400 million bid for Australian Airlines and that 100% of the enlarged Qantas Group would be privatized.
- 1993: Qantas and Australian Airlines merge
- 1995: Qantas Airways’ public share offer was launched, and their stocks were listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.
- 1998: Qantas co-founded Oneword alliance with American Airlines, British Airways, Canadian Airlines, and Cathay Pacific,
- 2001: Jetstar brand was created after the discount airline Virgin Blue entered the Australian market in 2000.
- 2013: Qantas and Emirates create an alliance
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