From ABC News (abc.net.au)
Qantas to tell ASX takeover will go ahead
Qantas is due to make a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange on Monday about the takeover offer from Airline Partners Australia.
The consortium announced this morning it plans to go ahead with the bid, after an acceptance from a major American investor.
The acceptance came after the deadline last night and gave the consortium the required level of support.
The consortium now intends to seek approval from the Takeovers Panel to proceed to the next stage.
It is understood the panel can take up to two weeks to deal with such applications.
Qantas says it is confident the various businesses in the Qantas group will continue to operate in a highly professional manner.
Airline Analyst Fabian Babich from BBY says the key issue for shareholders is to wait for a decision from the Takeovers Panel.
"Now we understand that the panel has been convened on an emergency basis over the weekend and we would imagine that they'll be working hard to try and arrive at a decision on prior to the opening of market on Monday morning," he said.
"If they don't reach a decision on Monday morning, our view would be that the stock exchange would likely introduce a suspension of trading of Qantas shares because the situation at the moment is an imbalanced information one as far as shareholders go.
"In other words, they really don't know the full details of the takeover bid.