Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) has given Regional Express Holdings the greenlight for its Rex Freight and Charter Pty Ltd (RFC) unit to acquire National Jet Express Pty Ltd (NJE) t/a Cobham Aviation Services Australia - Regional (Adelaide International) from Cobham Group. The acquisition, valued at around AUD48 million Australian dollars (USD32.6 million), was subject to a review given the significant shareholdings Singaporean interests hold in Rex and is the last of the regulatory barriers it needed to satisfy to complete the transaction.

In an Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) filing on Monday, September 19, Rex said the FIRB had issued a no objection notification, opening the way for the airline to complete the acquisition on September 30. In July, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) also approved the buyout on the basis that it would not lessen competition in the FIFO market segment.

The NJE purchase provides Rex with an immediate 20% slice of the lucrative Australian FIFO market that services remote mining and resources projects. Using Cobham-branded aircraft, NJE now flies to 17 mining and resource sites from its Perth International base and three sites from Adelaide International. Along with these service contracts, Rex will take on the eight DHC-8-Q400s and six E190s that belong to NJE. Rex presently operates fifty-eight Saab 340Bs and seven B737-800s on regular passenger transport routes in Australia.

Along with divesting its FIFO operations, Cobham has also recently sold off its special missions business segment to US-headquartered defence IT specialist Leidos in a deal that will see their Australian arm takeover Cobham's airborne border surveillance and search and rescue services on behalf of the Australian Government.