Macquarie Bank Group Tops 50% Backing for Qantas Bid (Update1)
By Joyce Moullakis and Mary Schlangenstein
May 5 (Bloomberg) -- Macquarie Bank Ltd. and its buyout partners said they won majority support from Qantas Airways Ltd. investors and would ask regulators to let their A$11.1 billion ($9.1 billion) bid for Australia's biggest airline continue.
Airline Partners Australia said in a statement that a large shareholder's acceptance of its offer late yesterday pushed it past the 50 percent mark. Earlier in the day, the group said its bid for Qantas had fallen short.
The bidders, including TPG Inc. and Onex Corp., may get an automatic 14-day extension under Australian takeover law to secure the 70 percent of Qantas needed for the A$5.45 a share cash bid to succeed. If the bid fails, all stock tendered will be returned to investors.
Qantas spokesman Simon Rushton said earlier that the airline's board would meet today ``to discuss the situation.'' He declined further comment.
The takeover bid has been accepted by 58 percent of all Qantas shareholders holding 50.6 percent of the airline's shares, Airline Partners said in the statement.
To contact the reporters on this story: Joyce Moullakis in Sydney at
[email protected] ; Mary Schlangenstein in Dallas at
[email protected]...........
WTF..........THs was from Bloomberg just a few minutes ago.
These ba#$!@%# have had months to talk people into this and now after the deadline they try this stunt.If they can get this through we will all know that the whole thing is a sham....