...and surprise, surprise! The APA consortium wants to keep their bid alive according to the ABC this morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It appears that every person on the planet thinks that Qantas is worth more than the bid.........except the Directors and Managers of the Company whose job it is to maximise it's value, and whose services the APA consortium wish to retain for some reason I simply cannot fathom.
Now I am a bear of very little brain and I cannot understand a number of fings......
1. Qantas has been crying poor for at least four years now, the managers and Board justifying their abysmal treatment of staff and their cost cutting on the basis of Qantas status as a "legacy" carrier. The mainline being a bit like an old horse that needs to be put down.
2. During this same time, Qantas has been making annual billion dollar profits and apparently investing in new equipment that has yet to arrive.
3. A suitor materialises (APA) from nowhere and offers to buy the company for 11 billion, and take it private, announcing as it does so that the first thing it is going to do is rip 5 billion out of Qantas and recapitalise it. Exactly who conjured APA into existence is a moot point.
4. One notes in passing that if Qantas is a private company, the majority of its dealings, are.......private.
5. The Board of Qantas enthusiastically recommends the deal, to the point of kissing and hugging each other.
6. One notes in passing that APA wishes to retain the services of the entire Board and management if it succeeds in its bid.
Questions: Why would APA wish to buy a failed legacy airline?
Why would APA wish to retain a Board and Management that tells the general population and its current shareholders that Qantas is a failed legacy airline and behaves accordingly?
There is a major disconnect here that I don't understand.
Obviously APA believes that Qantas is worth more than they are offering, otherwise common sense dictates they wouldn't be trying to buy it.
Yet they wish to retain the services of the Board and Management that have apparently been unable ( since they couldn't possibly be unwilling, since that would be a breach of their duties wouldn't it?) to unlock the value that APA apparently sees in the company for the benefit of existing shareholders. Why is this????????????????? There is a logical disconnect here aI don't understand, everybody, except the Board thinks Qantas is a good business. What is wrong here?????? Why would one want a Board that thinks that things are bad and getting worse. when profits and the existence of bidders indicate otherwise????