Thredbo has long been the subject of sales rumours since signing first with the Mountain Collective and then with Alterra Mountain Company’s Ikon Pass. With Vail Resorts purchasing Perisher then Hotham and Falls Creek in the last decade and launching the Epic Australia Pass, the natural assumption was that Alterra may do the same with a Thredbo acquisition and an Ikon Pass allocation.
The Australian market of skiers and snowboarders is coveted by the northern hemisphere and nothing lures a skier in more than a multi-resort dual hemisphere pass.
EVT, the company behind Thredbo as well as QT and Rydges hotel chains alongside Event Cinemas, announced this week that their tourism assets may be on the market with Rothschild & Co appointed to run an property assessment review.
The company intends to sell around a third of their property portfolio and assets.
As reported by The Australian Financial Review,
“Everything is genuinely on the table,” EVT chief executive Jane Hastings told an earnings call when asked whether Thredbo could also be divested.
“We have highlighted that hotels is our priority growth platform, so this really is questioning about how we make sure that we can unlock all the opportunities that we see to realise that. We are not going to jump ahead on any structural options at this point until the work is completed.”
It’s a challenging time for Australian ski resorts with the 2026 snowfall being well short of average and a weather cycle that melted snow when it did appear from the sky. EVT flagged Thredbo’s value at $143million, down from $292million, but still within reach for the bigger ski industry players of Vail Resorts and Alterra Mountain Company.
Vail Resorts would find it difficult to get a Thredbo acquisition approved by government authorities as the purchase would mean a monopoly within Australia. Meanwhile Alterra Mountain Company has it’s own fiscal issues with staff cuts at their Denver head quarters.
NZ Ski and Real NZ would surely be likely contenders in search of a solid Australian database of high end skiers and snowboarders that Thredbo boasts. Though being operators in the same seasonal hemisphere may result in cannibalisation rather than growth.
We’ve reached out to Thredbo for comment.
Watch this space.
*feature image – MILA RANDALL ENJOYING THE THREDBO VIEW. Photo: Thredbo
