Qantas bidders 'restructure $11bn offer'
Steve Creedy
Aviation writer
December 05, 2006
MEMBERS of the private equity consortium behind the proposed $11 billion takeover of Qantas have reportedly restructured their proposal to evade scrutiny by competition and foreign investment regulators.
According to today’s Financial Times, Texas Pacific Group is now planning to limit its stake to a maximum 14.9 per cent holding, instead of the rumoured investment of 25 per cent.
Canada’s Onex Corp also proposed taking an equity stake of less than 14.9 per cent.
The FT said the consortium believes this would keep them below a 15 per cent stake that would trigger a mandatory probe by Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board.
Macquarie bank was also proposing to limit its stake to 14.9 per cent, to avoid a probe by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, it said.
The remaining shareholding would be made up of Allco Finance (14.9 per cent), Pacific Equity partners (5 per cent), senior Qantas management (1 per cent) and super funds.
Qantas last week upgraded its profit expectations by 30 per cent, prompting speculation the bidders could have to pay as much as $6 per share to get board approval of the takeover.
The airline’s shares were trading at $5.13 earlier this afternoon.
Lets hope the unions are on to the superfunds and strongly object to the proposed take over.
