Originally Posted by
27/09
I've read it previously. It's an interesting recounting of events but does nothing to contradict what I said. The indisputable fact of the matter is that Ansett was consistently returning profits prior to Air New Zealand buying the second half of the business. ANZ had held half the board positions prior to the the buy-out so any suggestion that they were in some way blindsided by anything arising out of the transaction is risible.
The very simple story is that ANZ bought what they couldn't afford, paid too much (36 percent more than what SQ had offered which in of itself should have rung alarm bells) and borrowed heavily to fund the purchase. Moreover, they had no plan for how they were going to integrate the two businesses and no CEO to drive the process. For the critical six months after the purchase the whole show was being run by Sir Selwyn Cushing, a mate of Ron
Brierley's with zero airline experience. In centralising Treasury and Finance to Auckland ANZ moved cash out of AN while ladling in the liabilities associated with the borrowings undertaken to fund the purchase.
The rest is all fairly well known.