Corpse of Ansett gives up $550m
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Corpse of Ansett gives up $550m
Mon "The Australian" 9/9/02
Corpse of Ansett gives up $550m
By Michael Bachelard
September 09, 2002
A YEAR after the dramatic collapse of Ansett, the failed airline's administrators are wasting no opportunities to milk whatever money they can from the shell of the Australian airline.
So far, the concerted push to extract value from every item of Ansett has yielded more than $550 million.
Ansett's Sydney terminal, its most valuable asset, fetched $197 million, the central Melbourne head office $31 million. Also sold are the Brisbane hangar (to Qantas), the Melbourne jet base (to Virgin) and $10 million worth of plant and equipment.
Yet to be sold are the planes, but there is value to be had in all sorts of unlikely areas. Administrators charge $20,000 a pop for film crews and rock bands to shoot footage in the empty planes and terminals.
They are even trying to sell the tainted Ansett brand name, although administrator Mark Korda said he had heard nothing from Singapore airlines, who were rumoured at one stage to be seeking to revive it.
Among the bits and pieces still to be sold are Ansett's brands and trade marks, more than 100 of them. Ansett registered more than 100 brand names, among them the world trademarks for the words e-ticket and e-check in. Mr Korda is preparing a detailed document for the creditors on all these issues for September 16. He believes the remaining assets will earn up to another $350 million, making for a total of $900 million, out of which the former staff, the Government, and the administrators themselves must be paid.
Until September 16, he and partner Mark Mentha are sticking to their estimate that staff will receive 92c in the dollar for redundancy pay over and above the core entitlement of eight weeks.
The darkest cloud on the financial horizon is a case being brought by the trustees of the company's superannuation fund to elevate $200 million above other outstanding entitlements.
Mr Korda believes the dispute could drag on for up to five years and $2 million to $3 million in legal costs and if the trustees win – in the face of opposition from both administrators and staff – a portion of those entitlements could be locked up until retirement age.
Mr Korda hopes to prevent that outcome with pragmatism, recalling the $150 million compensation package from Air New Zealand which was settled in a fortnight and at that stage represented the largest such settlement in Australian history.
As for the costs of the administration, which came under fire at creditors' meetings earlier this year, Mr Korda said they would come in "substantially below" the $295 million quoted in the first report to creditors in January.
Corpse of Ansett gives up $550m
By Michael Bachelard
September 09, 2002
A YEAR after the dramatic collapse of Ansett, the failed airline's administrators are wasting no opportunities to milk whatever money they can from the shell of the Australian airline.
So far, the concerted push to extract value from every item of Ansett has yielded more than $550 million.
Ansett's Sydney terminal, its most valuable asset, fetched $197 million, the central Melbourne head office $31 million. Also sold are the Brisbane hangar (to Qantas), the Melbourne jet base (to Virgin) and $10 million worth of plant and equipment.
Yet to be sold are the planes, but there is value to be had in all sorts of unlikely areas. Administrators charge $20,000 a pop for film crews and rock bands to shoot footage in the empty planes and terminals.
They are even trying to sell the tainted Ansett brand name, although administrator Mark Korda said he had heard nothing from Singapore airlines, who were rumoured at one stage to be seeking to revive it.
Among the bits and pieces still to be sold are Ansett's brands and trade marks, more than 100 of them. Ansett registered more than 100 brand names, among them the world trademarks for the words e-ticket and e-check in. Mr Korda is preparing a detailed document for the creditors on all these issues for September 16. He believes the remaining assets will earn up to another $350 million, making for a total of $900 million, out of which the former staff, the Government, and the administrators themselves must be paid.
Until September 16, he and partner Mark Mentha are sticking to their estimate that staff will receive 92c in the dollar for redundancy pay over and above the core entitlement of eight weeks.
The darkest cloud on the financial horizon is a case being brought by the trustees of the company's superannuation fund to elevate $200 million above other outstanding entitlements.
Mr Korda believes the dispute could drag on for up to five years and $2 million to $3 million in legal costs and if the trustees win – in the face of opposition from both administrators and staff – a portion of those entitlements could be locked up until retirement age.
Mr Korda hopes to prevent that outcome with pragmatism, recalling the $150 million compensation package from Air New Zealand which was settled in a fortnight and at that stage represented the largest such settlement in Australian history.
As for the costs of the administration, which came under fire at creditors' meetings earlier this year, Mr Korda said they would come in "substantially below" the $295 million quoted in the first report to creditors in January.
short flights long nights
How do you get a job as an administrator? Sounds like great money, just for pushing paper around. Or am I missing something?
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Administrators still selling Ansett assets
AM - Thursday, September 12, 2002 8:21
ELEANOR HALL: All hopes of reviving Ansett died six months ago when the Melbourne businessmen, Lindsay Fox and Solomon Lew, pulled out of their plan to buy the airline.
Since then, administrators Mark Mentha and Mark Korda have been trying to recover as much as they can from Ansett by selling its assets.
But with the global aviation industry in turmoil, the task hasn't been easy.
Finance Correspondent Stephen Long reports.
STEPHEN LONG: Mark Mentha once sold some helicopters to the Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin, to raise money for creditors of a failed company.
He now jokes when it comes to Ansett's fleet, he'd be lucky to find a buyer of that calibre.
And that's the dilemma. A year after Ansett's collapse, the administrators have forty three planes to sell. What price the two Marks get for them will determine whether sixteen thousand workers get the money they're owed.
The problem is, now is a bad time to be selling planes. There's twelve hundred and fifty on the market worldwide and a global slump on travel has sent airlines across the globe into bankruptcy.
Mark Korda is candid about Ansett's prospects.
MARK KORDA: In fact for many of our planes, you could say there is no market.
STEPHEN LONG: Ansett's real estate has been a different story. The administrators have gained more than half a billion dollars from the sale of property assets, including Ansett's Sydney and Melbourne terminals and they say workers could get about ninety cents in every dollar they are owed.
Bu there is a legal battle underway that could foil that outcome.
A super fund for Ansett's former ground staff is taking court action against the administrators. It is short two hundred million dollars and says it should be top of the queue for any monies raised.
If it wins, the main benefits will flow to well paid licensed engineers and there won't be much left over to pay out other entitlements Ansett workers are still owed.
Since last October, the Government has been raising about eleven million dollars a month from an Ansett ticket tax levied on travellers. It was meant to go to the former Ansett staff, but to date they haven't received any.
The Government has guaranteed workers will get what it sees as their basic entitlements – any outstanding wages, annual leave and up to eight weeks redundancy pay, but employees could still miss out on hundred of millions in extra redundancy money they are owed.
Even so, they are better off than Ansett's unsecured creditors. Collectively, they are owed two billion dollars and they won't get a cent of that money.
ELEANOR HALL: Finance Correspondent Stephen Long.
ELEANOR HALL: All hopes of reviving Ansett died six months ago when the Melbourne businessmen, Lindsay Fox and Solomon Lew, pulled out of their plan to buy the airline.
Since then, administrators Mark Mentha and Mark Korda have been trying to recover as much as they can from Ansett by selling its assets.
But with the global aviation industry in turmoil, the task hasn't been easy.
Finance Correspondent Stephen Long reports.
STEPHEN LONG: Mark Mentha once sold some helicopters to the Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin, to raise money for creditors of a failed company.
He now jokes when it comes to Ansett's fleet, he'd be lucky to find a buyer of that calibre.
And that's the dilemma. A year after Ansett's collapse, the administrators have forty three planes to sell. What price the two Marks get for them will determine whether sixteen thousand workers get the money they're owed.
The problem is, now is a bad time to be selling planes. There's twelve hundred and fifty on the market worldwide and a global slump on travel has sent airlines across the globe into bankruptcy.
Mark Korda is candid about Ansett's prospects.
MARK KORDA: In fact for many of our planes, you could say there is no market.
STEPHEN LONG: Ansett's real estate has been a different story. The administrators have gained more than half a billion dollars from the sale of property assets, including Ansett's Sydney and Melbourne terminals and they say workers could get about ninety cents in every dollar they are owed.
Bu there is a legal battle underway that could foil that outcome.
A super fund for Ansett's former ground staff is taking court action against the administrators. It is short two hundred million dollars and says it should be top of the queue for any monies raised.
If it wins, the main benefits will flow to well paid licensed engineers and there won't be much left over to pay out other entitlements Ansett workers are still owed.
Since last October, the Government has been raising about eleven million dollars a month from an Ansett ticket tax levied on travellers. It was meant to go to the former Ansett staff, but to date they haven't received any.
The Government has guaranteed workers will get what it sees as their basic entitlements – any outstanding wages, annual leave and up to eight weeks redundancy pay, but employees could still miss out on hundred of millions in extra redundancy money they are owed.
Even so, they are better off than Ansett's unsecured creditors. Collectively, they are owed two billion dollars and they won't get a cent of that money.
ELEANOR HALL: Finance Correspondent Stephen Long.
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If it wins, the main benefits will flow to well paid licensed engineers and there won't be much left over to pay out other entitlements Ansett workers are still owed.
I wish some-one would get some of the facts right !!
NOT ALL ENGINEERS WERE IN SUPER
If it wins, the main benefits will flow to well paid licensed engineers and there won't be much left over to pay out other entitlements Ansett workers are still owed.
I wish some-one would get some of the facts right !!
NOT ALL ENGINEERS WERE IN SUPER
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If we're talking about getting it right, it is the Ansett Groundstaff Superannuation Fund. It does not cover only engineers, it covers ALL ground staff. So unless you are a manager, FA or pilot it affects EVERYBODY. The ALAEA refused to allow all the other ground staff unions to allow the redundancy payment shortfall of THEIR OWN MEMBERS to not be decided before the courts.So before anybody points the stick at engineers, have a serious talk to your own weak-kneed union leaders whose only goal was to minimise the degree of effort THEY had to put in for THEIR MEMBERS entitlements.
And keep in mind Mark & Mark have adopted the '92c in the dollar' as the advertising slogan for their new enterprise. So they have a vested interest in preserving that figure.
And keep in mind Mark & Mark have adopted the '92c in the dollar' as the advertising slogan for their new enterprise. So they have a vested interest in preserving that figure.
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Ansett staff still unpaid
By Tory Maguire
September 13, 2002
TOMORROW'S anniversary of the grounding of Ansett has triggered new bickering over how the Federal Government and the airline's administrators handled the aftermath of the collapse.
Labor has called on the Government to dish out money it has collected through the $10-a-ticket Ansett levy, and to support legislation giving priority to workers' entitlements in corporate collapses.
"The workers of Ansett are entitled to be terribly disappointed with the Government's failure to keep the airline flying, but they're entitled more so to be disappointed that their benefits entitlements haven't been paid," said Opposition Leader Simon Crean.
Transport Minister John Anderson's spokesman said half the entitlements had been paid and the rest was awaiting the sale of the airline's assets.
Labor also said the Government should support its Corporate Responsibility and Employment Security Bill, which the Opposition said would give workers new power to pursue their entitlements if their former bosses were guilty of mismanagement.
"What the Government needs to do is get those payments made; it needs to introduce the legislation," Mr Crean said, adding that Mr Anderson should be having talks with potential domestic player Singapore Airlines.
However, a spokesman for Singapore Airlines said the board had made no decision on its entry to the Australian market.
"We never said there were going to be discussions," he said. "We are continuing to keep our options open."
Mr Anderson told The Daily Telegraph he would be open to giving Singapore Airlines regulatory assistance but had not yet been approached.
In Sydney tomorrow, former work ers from Ansett and caterer Gategourmet will meet for a free picnic in Pagewood, put on by the Transport Workers Union.
"The picnic is really just a chance to mark the occasion, to get together and commemorate what they were able to achieve as part of the campaign," said a TWU spokesman.
Unions also urged former staff to attend Ansett's next creditors' meeting on September 25.
September 13, 2002
TOMORROW'S anniversary of the grounding of Ansett has triggered new bickering over how the Federal Government and the airline's administrators handled the aftermath of the collapse.
Labor has called on the Government to dish out money it has collected through the $10-a-ticket Ansett levy, and to support legislation giving priority to workers' entitlements in corporate collapses.
"The workers of Ansett are entitled to be terribly disappointed with the Government's failure to keep the airline flying, but they're entitled more so to be disappointed that their benefits entitlements haven't been paid," said Opposition Leader Simon Crean.
Transport Minister John Anderson's spokesman said half the entitlements had been paid and the rest was awaiting the sale of the airline's assets.
Labor also said the Government should support its Corporate Responsibility and Employment Security Bill, which the Opposition said would give workers new power to pursue their entitlements if their former bosses were guilty of mismanagement.
"What the Government needs to do is get those payments made; it needs to introduce the legislation," Mr Crean said, adding that Mr Anderson should be having talks with potential domestic player Singapore Airlines.
However, a spokesman for Singapore Airlines said the board had made no decision on its entry to the Australian market.
"We never said there were going to be discussions," he said. "We are continuing to keep our options open."
Mr Anderson told The Daily Telegraph he would be open to giving Singapore Airlines regulatory assistance but had not yet been approached.
In Sydney tomorrow, former work ers from Ansett and caterer Gategourmet will meet for a free picnic in Pagewood, put on by the Transport Workers Union.
"The picnic is really just a chance to mark the occasion, to get together and commemorate what they were able to achieve as part of the campaign," said a TWU spokesman.
Unions also urged former staff to attend Ansett's next creditors' meeting on September 25.
