AUSTRALIA. The government has ruled out allowing Qantas to be majority owned by a foreign company. The ruling follows a US$ billion takeover bid from a consortium led by Macquarie Bank and private equity firm Texas Pacific Group this week.
“The government policy is that the majority ownership of Qantas should be Australian,” Treasurer Peter Costello told reporters. Legislation limits total foreign ownership of Qantas to 49% and any individual shareholding to 25%.
Texas Pacific and Macquarie Bank have won financial backing from Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Credit Suisse for their bid for Qantas, the Financial Times reported.
If the deal succeeds, it would be the first time a private-equity consortium has acquired a publicly quoted airline.
Qantas confirmed the approach but said it was “confidential and incomplete, and is being investigated”. In its own statement Macquarie, Australia’s biggest investment bank, said it had held preliminary “indicative talks”, adding that the proposal was “conditional upon the support of the Qantas board”.
Qantas has weathered the industry slump of recent years, recording a profit every year since 1994. It reported record earnings in 2004 and 2005 after shedding jobs and establishing a budget carrier, Jetstar, to lure new passengers.
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