Allco Finance was at the centre of one of the world’s largest private equity bids last year when it teamed up with Macquarie Bank and TPG, the buy-out firm, to offer A$11.1bn ($10.3bn) for Qantas Airways.

A takeover was narrowly defeated by shareholders and the fortunes of Allco, an Australian-listed specialist investment and aircraft leasing business, have not been quite the same since.