QANTAS- On Market Takeover Offer
I'm going to make a prediction here; "someone" is going to launch an on market takeover offer for Qantas, most probably within hours of the release of the company's report today.
I base this on the sudden jump in the share price on 23rd August which looks to me as if people got interested in the stock around 3.00pm, enough to add about Seven cents to the share price.
I predict that the Company will produce a disappointing result, do its best to spread more doom and gloom, talk about "difficult market conditions", "unfair competition from the Middle East", etc. et. etc.
The so called bright spot will be the announcement of its intentions to start a premium brand carrier in Asia, and further expand Jetstar, both of which would appear to thinking members of the public to be as attractive a strategy as the kiss of death.
Members of the aviation community will castigate Qantas management as inept.
..Then the predator will strike, only this time he isn't paying $5.10.......
The money will be borrowed, most probably from America where interest rates are around zero, and the bid will be struck at maybe (guess) $2.00.
The predator gets control, stops the Asia push, rolls jetstar into Qantas, buys or leases B777, does all the other stuff they were going to do if the APA bid succeeded and laugh all the way to the bank.
This is pure speculation on my part, but I have no other answer to the question;
"If the underlying value of QANTAS was at least $5.10 in 2008, why is it only $1.50 or so now? How did it get that way, especially since the Australian economy has not been knocked around by the GFC ?"