lowerlobe
11th May 2007, 23:14
Qantas board dusts itself off for life after APA
May 12, 2007
THE contrast couldn't have been more dramatic. As Macquarie Bank hunkered down in its Pitt Street bunker this week, refusing to comment on its failed $11 bid for Qantas, airline chief Geoff Dixon was hosting an A-list event at Sydney Airport.
Dixon sipped on red wine as the glitterati watched wafer thin models try to keep their balance in their impossibly high heels as they catwalked down the marble floor of Qantas's glamorous new First Class Lounge at Sydney.
Corporate A-listers such as David Jones's Mark McInnes, Reserve banker Jillian Broadbent, Fairfax director Julia King and Qantas chief financial officer Peter Gregg mingled with the likes of fashion designers Collette Dinigan and Carla Zampatti, TV's Richard Wilkins, swimmer Kieren Perkins and cricketer Mark Waugh.
Unable to fly because of her deep vein thrombosis, Qantas chairman Margaret Jackson was at home in Melbourne.
Meanwhile at Macquarie Bank, the executives involved in the failed deal - under the wing of Macquarie star investment banker Nicholas Moore - were at a please explain session with their bosses.
Having spent up to $100 million on the Qantas deal already, expectations are that Macquarie won't give up easily.
Still on the record is this week's statement that bidding consortium Airline Partners Australia is looking at all its options including another bid.
But the word went out to Nick Moore from Canberra this week: whatever you do, don't come back before the election.
Macquarie's shares finished the week down $2.10 to $88.90 in a strong market - but given the daily battering of publicity this week it's not a bad result.
Last month, the bank raised a cool $12.5 billion from two new infrastructure funds in Europe, adding to what JP Morgan recently described as the Macquarie Bank "fee tsunami".
At Sydney Airport - owned by Macquarie Airports - the hotpants-clad models strutted to the tunes of Sunny and Bright Shiny Day. When it comes to relations between Qantas and Macquarie, Fleetwood Mac's Go Your Own Way might be more apt.
The two have been in a corporate bear hug since the Qantas board agreed to back the Macquarie-led bid for the airline last December.
As the share market rose and aviation stocks were revalued, the offer of $5.45 a share looked a lot less attractive than it did in December.
But the Qantas board was concerned that it could face legal action if it withdrew its endorsement of the bid before it was given a chance to be put before shareholders. After the farcical events of last weekend, the bear hug has ended in acrimony and scratches all round.
Relations between the Qantas board and Macquarie Bank could be considered just short of poisonous at the moment with the board feeling it has been let down badly by Macquarie's handling of the deal.
"It's a diamond encrusted, rolled gold f... up," one furious Qantas source said this week.
"It's as if they were walking through a field of seven landmines and they managed to tread on eight of them.
"It makes you wonder: if they couldn't handle the deal, how would they go running the airline?"
It's not just the handling of what was supposed to be a "slam dunk" - getting to the requisite 50 per cent last Friday to keep the bid alive.
There are also recriminations about how the deal was handled, with no really credible bid leader publicly trumpeting the deal and with APA's over-confident declaration that the price was "final" cutting off its options for getting the deal over the line.
Adding to the bitterness has been that directors and Jackson supporters had to keep silent on the fact that the chairman has been seriously ill in recent weeks with DVT after surgery in an arm. But she only missed two of the many Qantas board hookups.
"She came that close," said one emotional Qantas source this week.
Jackson signalled yesterday that she planned to stay on as chair, citing the need to restore stability to the airline.
She and Dixon are acutely aware of the need to move quickly to shore up morale and reassure top management - particularly those who stood to gain financially from the APA takeover.
Those close to Dixon described him this week as "gutted" by the collapse of the deal and the events of the past few months. At Thursday's cocktail party he looked tired but was insisting it was business as usual at Qantas. CFO Gregg, who had originally been due to fly to New York last week to talk to the company's new banks, looked almost relaxed.
The Qantas board meets next week in Melbourne to discuss future strategy. One good result from the mess of the last few months has been that the Qantas board has finally seen its share market valuation significantly rerated upwards.......
How many times on Pprune has someone posted the belief that if they could not meet a deadline then how could they think they could run an airline?
As Far as Darth and Princess Leia are concerned..........FOGAM
May 12, 2007
THE contrast couldn't have been more dramatic. As Macquarie Bank hunkered down in its Pitt Street bunker this week, refusing to comment on its failed $11 bid for Qantas, airline chief Geoff Dixon was hosting an A-list event at Sydney Airport.
Dixon sipped on red wine as the glitterati watched wafer thin models try to keep their balance in their impossibly high heels as they catwalked down the marble floor of Qantas's glamorous new First Class Lounge at Sydney.
Corporate A-listers such as David Jones's Mark McInnes, Reserve banker Jillian Broadbent, Fairfax director Julia King and Qantas chief financial officer Peter Gregg mingled with the likes of fashion designers Collette Dinigan and Carla Zampatti, TV's Richard Wilkins, swimmer Kieren Perkins and cricketer Mark Waugh.
Unable to fly because of her deep vein thrombosis, Qantas chairman Margaret Jackson was at home in Melbourne.
Meanwhile at Macquarie Bank, the executives involved in the failed deal - under the wing of Macquarie star investment banker Nicholas Moore - were at a please explain session with their bosses.
Having spent up to $100 million on the Qantas deal already, expectations are that Macquarie won't give up easily.
Still on the record is this week's statement that bidding consortium Airline Partners Australia is looking at all its options including another bid.
But the word went out to Nick Moore from Canberra this week: whatever you do, don't come back before the election.
Macquarie's shares finished the week down $2.10 to $88.90 in a strong market - but given the daily battering of publicity this week it's not a bad result.
Last month, the bank raised a cool $12.5 billion from two new infrastructure funds in Europe, adding to what JP Morgan recently described as the Macquarie Bank "fee tsunami".
At Sydney Airport - owned by Macquarie Airports - the hotpants-clad models strutted to the tunes of Sunny and Bright Shiny Day. When it comes to relations between Qantas and Macquarie, Fleetwood Mac's Go Your Own Way might be more apt.
The two have been in a corporate bear hug since the Qantas board agreed to back the Macquarie-led bid for the airline last December.
As the share market rose and aviation stocks were revalued, the offer of $5.45 a share looked a lot less attractive than it did in December.
But the Qantas board was concerned that it could face legal action if it withdrew its endorsement of the bid before it was given a chance to be put before shareholders. After the farcical events of last weekend, the bear hug has ended in acrimony and scratches all round.
Relations between the Qantas board and Macquarie Bank could be considered just short of poisonous at the moment with the board feeling it has been let down badly by Macquarie's handling of the deal.
"It's a diamond encrusted, rolled gold f... up," one furious Qantas source said this week.
"It's as if they were walking through a field of seven landmines and they managed to tread on eight of them.
"It makes you wonder: if they couldn't handle the deal, how would they go running the airline?"
It's not just the handling of what was supposed to be a "slam dunk" - getting to the requisite 50 per cent last Friday to keep the bid alive.
There are also recriminations about how the deal was handled, with no really credible bid leader publicly trumpeting the deal and with APA's over-confident declaration that the price was "final" cutting off its options for getting the deal over the line.
Adding to the bitterness has been that directors and Jackson supporters had to keep silent on the fact that the chairman has been seriously ill in recent weeks with DVT after surgery in an arm. But she only missed two of the many Qantas board hookups.
"She came that close," said one emotional Qantas source this week.
Jackson signalled yesterday that she planned to stay on as chair, citing the need to restore stability to the airline.
She and Dixon are acutely aware of the need to move quickly to shore up morale and reassure top management - particularly those who stood to gain financially from the APA takeover.
Those close to Dixon described him this week as "gutted" by the collapse of the deal and the events of the past few months. At Thursday's cocktail party he looked tired but was insisting it was business as usual at Qantas. CFO Gregg, who had originally been due to fly to New York last week to talk to the company's new banks, looked almost relaxed.
The Qantas board meets next week in Melbourne to discuss future strategy. One good result from the mess of the last few months has been that the Qantas board has finally seen its share market valuation significantly rerated upwards.......
How many times on Pprune has someone posted the belief that if they could not meet a deadline then how could they think they could run an airline?
As Far as Darth and Princess Leia are concerned..........FOGAM