Forum Archive Index - April 2001

["Ken Donelan" <kdonelan@ihug.co.nz>]

I just love conspiracy theories but the facts say something quite diferent:

 

1. Singapore Airlines wanted to buy 40% of Air New Zealand but could not gain N.Z. Govt approval so ended up with just a 25% stake.

2. There is no way S.A. could have known of Ansett's woes - Air N.Z. was a 50% owner of Ansett at the time and even they didn't know!!

3. S.A. had agreed to buy 50% of Ansett for A$500m from News Ltd but were unable to complete the deal as Air N.Z. had first right of refusal on News' shares. Air N.Z. then purchased the shares from News for around A$580m. S.A. will now probably pick up those shares from Air N.Z. for much less.

----- Original Message -----

From: Christopher

To: sharechat@sharechat.co.nz

Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2001 9:29 PM

Subject: Re: [sharechat] AIRNZ - Snoopy

Hi, to what extent do you think the problem was foreseen by Singapore Airlines before they became involved? I find it hard to imagine that they were unaware of the extent of Ansett's woes, although they could not have reasonably been expected to be aware of the grounding of  the 767s by the CAA. Is it possible they always intended to purchase the initial tranch of 25% of the comapny, via  the B shares, and then wait for the inevitable to happen, ie Ansett to begin showing stresses and strains of an older fleet and then go to the NZ govt and undertake to underwrite the necessary capital raising in return for the govt to allow the stake to go to 49%. Interested in your thoughts , or anybody elses.