Qantas turns on a dime
An extra 10 Australian cents per share — and a couple key conditions — finally won over the folks at Qantas. The Australian airline accepted an $8.6 billion takeover bid from a private equity group today.
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SCOTT JAGOW: Yesterday we told Australia’s Qantas turned down two private equity firms that wanted to buy the airline.
Well, that was yesterday. Today, Qantas accepted a bid that was sweetened a little bit.
Mark Pilling of Airline Business Magazine believes this could spark a wave of airline mergers over the next six months.
MARK PILLING: The airline industry’s been crying out for freedom to consolidate for years and it’s often prevented by government and national ownership restrictions. So this is not a case of the airline industry being behind the demand curve, because it wants to consolidate.
The $8.6 billion Qantas deal is one of the biggest corporate takeovers in Australian history.