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Aviation History
2002
2002 - 0641.PDF
BUYOUT COLLAPSE PAUL PHELAN / CAIRNS Ansett's $1.5bn white knight beats a last-minute retreat Tesna consortium backs out of planned purchase with just two days to spare Solomon Lew and Lindsay Fox, the Australian businessmen leading the Tesna consortium, walked away from their planned AS3 billion ($1.54 billion) buyout of Ansett on 27 March, just two days before the scheduled handover by its administrators. Ansett was on the brink of liqui dation as Flight International went to press, although its administra tors were desperately seeking an alternative buyer. Ansett was expected to continue flying until midnight on 4 March. Virgin Blue and stevedoring operator Chris Corrigan's Patrick Corp may jointly buy some Ansett assets, including engineering facili ties, terminal space and simulators, while Qantas has confirmed its interest in the Melbourne-head quartered airline's maintenance and engineering facilities. Patrick declines to comment on a possible merger with Virgin Blue, but Corrigan says that its original offer for Ansett had "never been withdrawn". Singapore Airlines, which offered A$500 million for Ansett in 1999, is also believed to be interested in some assets. Fox and Lew blamed the col lapse on "issues including environ mental risk liabilities associated with terminal leases, and unfore seen costs of up to AS20 million to take over Ansett's AN designator code". Industry sources, however, believe that potential Tesna backers pulled out because they doubted Ansett could succeed against Virgin Blue and Qantas. The collapse of the deal leaves 3,000 Ansett workers again unemployed, while creditors are angry at the decision. It appears that unsecured creditors are unlikely to be paid anything. Tesna is estimated to have spent about A$30 million on due- diligence procedures and was los ing about A$6 million a week on Ansett operations. Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon was quick to assure the Australian government and public that the carrier could cope with the loss of Ansett and that fares would not rise as a result. Former Ansett-owned regional carriers Hazelton and Kendell Airlines, which are under two sepa rate administrators, will continue to operate. The two administrators are considering a plan to merge the airlines ahead of a sale Flight Inter national, 26 February - 4 March). AIRLINE MERGER HERMAN DE WULF / BRUSSELS Virgin and SN Brussels fail to agree The planned merger between Brus sels-based airlines Virgin Express and SN Brussels Airlines has col lapsed, after the two carriers con cluded that their operations were too different. SN was until recently DAT, the regional subsidiary of bankrupt flag carrier Sabena, which was relaunched as a new Belgian national airline. Virgin Express says that SN's cap ital is insufficient to support its operations plan. Virgin Express will "continue as a low-fare operator serving the business and leisure markets", while SN will concen trate on the business market, offer ing daily high-frequency services to 35 European cities, as well as to Africa from next month. The two airlines have already integrated schedules to avoid com peting on certain routes and SN is buying capacity on Virgin Express Virgin Express is out of love with prospective bedmate SN Brussels flights to London Heathrow, Barcelona and Rome Fiumicino, as Sabena did before its demise. SN, which operates 32 BAE Systems Avro RJ85/100s and BAe 146 regional jets, may take up to 10 larger ex-Sabena Airbus A319s for some routes. It will also lease two ex-Sabena A330-3OOs from a new Belgian airline being formed by Victor Hasson and Georges Gutelman, previously behind Bel gian carriers Trans European Air lines and City Bird. SN will wet-lease the aircraft from the start-up, temporarily named "Birdy Airlines", to operate on African routes from 26 April. • VG Airlines, a new Belgian long- haul carrier being formed to begin scheduled services between Brus sels and the USA, has secured a new shareholder, Belgium's Group Borre. The investment doubles VG's capital from €1.25 million ($1.1 million) to €2.5 million. BUSINESS TAKE-OVER Thales seeks approval for ADI defence acquisition Thales has applied for Australian government approval to take over ADI, one of Australia's top five defence contractors. ADI is jointly owned by Thales Pacific and Australia-based Transfield Holdings. Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board should rule on the take-over within the next 90 days. Thales loaned Transfield an estimated A$173 million ($90 million) - half the total purchase price - in 1999 to buy its share of ADI from the Australian govern ment. Late last year Transfield revealed that it was unable to service the loan. Thales has been discussing the take-over with government officials since early December. Thales chairman Denis Ranque visited Canberra last month for talks with defence minister Robert Hill and finance minister Nick Minchim. The take-over plan is expected to re-invigorate debate in Australia about foreign control of its domestic defence industry - it would leave Tenix as the only major defence firm still owned and controlled by Australians. ADI has addressed these concerns by advising the gov ernment that all classified projects being carried out by the company would be placed into an "Australian eyes only" facility. Thales also plans to retain ADI's existing management arrangements, but would combine Thales and ADI opera tions in Australia into a single entity. As well as ADI, the French company's operations in Australia also include Thales Underwater Systems. An internal ADI memo obtained by Flight International says: "It is clear that ADI's growth prospects will be further enhanced by having an owner that is focused on the same technologies and same busi ness segments." www.flightinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 5-11 MARCH 2002 29
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