APA Bid Failed
 

SMH.COM.AU reports.. "The proposed $11.1 billion private equity buyout for the national carrier, Qantas, has failed". Hopefully the Board will be appropriately amended as a result.

APA Bid fails to get 50% (Merged)
 

Just seeing a headline - Dow Jones news - APA fails to receive 50% acceptances for Qantas bid

They only got 46%......hahahahhahahahhahahahaa...:E

Yay
 

Good news I say. Glad its staying a public company. I will be interested to see the boards reaction to this, espcially Jackson's response.

As my fave SMH journo is wont to observe, the Oz public aint stoopid.:D

U Beauty!!
 

As reported in the Sydney Morning Herald ---

$11.1 billion Qantas grab fails
Scott Rochfort
May 4, 2007 - 9:08PM

The proposed $11.1 billion private equity buyout for Qantas has failed.
The Airline Partners Australia (APA) consortium confirmed tonight they had only secured 46 per cent of the national carrier after a deadline for the takeover offer expired at 7pm.

The consortium needed 50 per cent of the airline for the offer of $5.45 per Qantas share to be extended another two weeks.

APA set a target of gaining acceptances of 70 per cent, after lowering its original target of 90 per cent.

Shareholder acceptances for the bid for Qantas had risen seven per cent, according to a notice lodged with the Australian Stock Exchange yesterday.

At the time, APA said it had total acceptances for 32.96 per cent of the airlines's shares, up from 25.94 per cent, as of Wednesday.

Its voting power over Qantas shares had risen to 27.78 per cent, from 17.63 per cent.

Shares held under an institutional acceptance facility - where institutions have the right to withdraw their acceptance - had fallen to 5.19 per cent from 8.31 per cent as of Wednesday.

APA was counting on a last-minute rush of acceptances from hedge funds to get the deal over the line.

- with AAP

Fantastic news for most of us ......Bad news for a few here that wanted the deal to go through.

Darth and princess Leia will have a few questions to answer....

Hope we did our little bit.

The Result.....
 

One set of bastards seen off......now for the board and management

It is time for the Fat Lady to sing
 

The bid has failed.

Off you go marg, and take your CEO with you!

YesTAM,

Or didn't, as the case may be!!

Captainrats,

Aren't they the same mob?!


So... one can be forgiven for wondering how the Board, which unanimously backed APA, can continue having supported a failed bid.

Wonder if any of the Macquarie Bankers will be kicked into touch.

Oh this is going to be fun to watch.

:ok: :ok: :ok: :ok: :ok: :ok: :ok: :ok: :ok: :ok: :ok: :ok: :ok:

Alumni meetings are going to be a treat. Never did like the way St. Marg was held up as a saint by the Director of the school at the same time as he was labelling me as a mug for being human.:(

Maybe....just maybe....Mr.Borghetti's very human and thoughtful announcement regarding the Cairns AO staff is a promise of things to come.....as in: " "the most important asset of our business is our staff".....mind you I'm not holding my breath.

Taking bets on how long it takes APA to come back with a $6.50 + bid. My money's on before Christmas....

Great news but I believe that they will make another try in a couple of months time. Dixon has squirelled away too much money for those greedy bankers to resist. :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Anyone know if there was a break/failure fee in all this?

I would imagine that there might be a few angry shareholders out there. Someone with sufficient shares, needs to call an EGM demanding a few heads roll.

Apart from Mac Banks $300million plus in fees, I wonder if any of the senior execs had started to spend their promised blood money - his & hers Lamborghinis, a Sunseeker mega yacht etc. They must be feeling shattered.

Bugger !!!!!!

:ok:

As I understand it they can't make another bid for at least 4 months after a failed bid; a lot can change in that time.

Contact
 

Anyone have Dixon/Jackson`s phone number.?...I would like to shout them a beer.....their arrogance, deceipt and downright stupidity led to this deal not getting up.
Thanks Mrs.Dixon........ for making your son Geoffrey such a buffoon

Less than 50% after 4 months.. how embarrassing, considering the clout that the hedge funds hold (or is it held).suppose geoff will go back to being an industrial thug when Mr Howard loses in September.. and I wonder if Maggie will get another shot at GG?. They could hardly stay on considering their vociferous support of the bid that was so poorly taken up. Could they........?

Oh, My heart bleeds! There really is something rotten in the state of Denmark (sorry Mary). Now you 'managers' are going to have to do what you were paid to do before the bri.. . That is, if the shareholders and / or ASIC aren't after YOUR buts!
P.S. I'm not going to change my REVISED fuel ordering policy now I've seen the scant disregard these porcine people (oxymoron I know) have for the diligence required in weighing up safety versus profit. My old chief pilot always taught me to err on the side of the passenger...er customer!:eek: :ok:

Happy Daze
 

Happy days indeed.

Now all we need is for the Board ( aka Teletubbies) to resign on Monday and Dixon to be punted back to pulling beers and writing crap jingles to his bunker @ Wagga.

Makes all the hugs with the Dame look utter ridiculous now.

I just love how karma works.


Whoooooo Hoooooooooo.

Time for a Vic:D :D :D :} :} :}

Great news i wonder how much money apa spent on this attempt
i think they will be back
i wonder will the board back them again
bloody noses all around hurray

Whooooooooooooooooooo Hooooooooooooooooo

Thats the SPIRIT!!!

poor arrogant mac bank investments bankers i wonder if they are still entitled their seven figure bonus :}

http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/...788399360.html

"Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon has declined to offer his resignation, saying it was up to the board. As for his fellow executives Mr Dixon told smh.com.au: "The management team are all individuals. They can make make any decision on where they could go.''
Emergency meeting
The Qantas board will hold an emergency meeting tomorrow. Qantas chairwoman Margaret Jackson is expected to come under intense pressure to quit, given her strong endorsement of the private equity bid.
Shareholders such as Balance Equity Management and UBS Global Asset Management which rejected the offer, believed Ms Jackson and her board caved in too easily to the APA a share offer."

I reckon Maggie will go next week and Darth will hang on till the end of the year when Joyce takes over.

All I can say is:

http://www.thebeststuffintheworld.co...jpg?1173625661

Finally we can get on with life, past 5 months have been painful. I guess the majority of the QF owners are 'crazy' (or was it foolish? can't remember what was said!)...

:)

Part 2G.2, Division 2, Corporations Act 2001 - who may call a meeting of members

Would seem to this mug that, if 100 shareholders can band together (irrespective of the size of their holdings), they can demand the directors to call a general meeting of a company...

Board/CEO nominations ?
 

I nominate Mickey Mouse for CEO ( at least he has a sense of humour)

OR bring back Captain Ritchie ( is he still with us ?)

as for the board.....mmmmmmmmmmm.l???

Ah stuff it..... lets get rid of the entire Board.

They do "jack"......apart from keeping the Bollinger company in business.;)

Apparently there will be an " emergency " board meeting in the morning, Saturday local Sydney time to discuss the outcome
Wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall for that one :)



http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...T4k&refer=asia

It's time to go.................darth, Jack etc.

get someone in thats going to focus on the business not on self interest issues. Qantas is going to make a fortune this financial year and hopefully with so many fingers in senior management and the board being burnt by this they can appreciate that people are not as stupid as they think. Hopefully the dribble that is spoken by these guys ceases and they start being honest with investors and employee's........I wish.

Well, the market's perception of the outlook for Qantas as a credit (ie. its credit-worthiness) has changed now that the prospect has reduced of $4bn being ripped out and the company saddled with oodles of debt... CDS spreads have apparently tightened in 110bp (ie. the amount over risk-free debt that a giver of protection over Qantas credit would demand to take on that risk as dramatically reduced).

It may be wishful thinking, but maybe this is a sign that not only the 'mum & dad' investors, but also some of the Australian corporate investors are sick of Australian Institutions being 'managed', and then onsold by greedy corporate management, such as Dixon and Jackson.

They seemingly sold out the investors for personal gain, and there should be a formal investigation into their glowing support for a takeover, that was obviously (as the market has plainly said) NOT in the shareholders' best interest.

Without wanting to rain on anyone's parade,

This is but round 1. It'd be naive to think that there is not a Plan C (given that Plan B was to lower the threshold to 70%), Plan D and so on. We should, therefore, be wary of gloating and letting the guard down just yet. The battle is won; the war may not yet be.

QF must be bought out before Labour wins, otherwise conditions on the sale will be too onerous.

So what does it mean now that QF is almost certainly more than 49% foregin owned...

Who gets forced to sell?

Maybe I'm being Pollyanna-ish, but perhaps its time for QF to clean out its Board and management and start turning it into a company Australians can be proud of instead of a national embarassment?

...and surprise, surprise! The APA consortium wants to keep their bid alive according to the ABC this morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It appears that every person on the planet thinks that Qantas is worth more than the bid.........except the Directors and Managers of the Company whose job it is to maximise it's value, and whose services the APA consortium wish to retain for some reason I simply cannot fathom.

Now I am a bear of very little brain and I cannot understand a number of fings......

1. Qantas has been crying poor for at least four years now, the managers and Board justifying their abysmal treatment of staff and their cost cutting on the basis of Qantas status as a "legacy" carrier. The mainline being a bit like an old horse that needs to be put down.

2. During this same time, Qantas has been making annual billion dollar profits and apparently investing in new equipment that has yet to arrive.

3. A suitor materialises (APA) from nowhere and offers to buy the company for 11 billion, and take it private, announcing as it does so that the first thing it is going to do is rip 5 billion out of Qantas and recapitalise it. Exactly who conjured APA into existence is a moot point.

4. One notes in passing that if Qantas is a private company, the majority of its dealings, are.......private.

5. The Board of Qantas enthusiastically recommends the deal, to the point of kissing and hugging each other.

6. One notes in passing that APA wishes to retain the services of the entire Board and management if it succeeds in its bid.

Questions: Why would APA wish to buy a failed legacy airline?

Why would APA wish to retain a Board and Management that tells the general population and its current shareholders that Qantas is a failed legacy airline and behaves accordingly?

There is a major disconnect here that I don't understand.

Obviously APA believes that Qantas is worth more than they are offering, otherwise common sense dictates they wouldn't be trying to buy it.

Yet they wish to retain the services of the Board and Management that have apparently been unable ( since they couldn't possibly be unwilling, since that would be a breach of their duties wouldn't it?) to unlock the value that APA apparently sees in the company for the benefit of existing shareholders. Why is this????????????????? There is a logical disconnect here aI don't understand, everybody, except the Board thinks Qantas is a good business. What is wrong here?????? Why would one want a Board that thinks that things are bad and getting worse. when profits and the existence of bidders indicate otherwise????

ABC radio 702 reported at 7am that APA have secured the approval of a "large investor" that takes their holdings to 58 %............??????:confused: