Industry sources and individuals close to United say investor groups led by former United CEO Gerald Greenwald and ex-Continental Airlines chief Gordon Bethune and Dallas-based investment firm Texas Pacific Group are among those interested in the carrier, reported Crain’s Chicago Business.
Meanwhile, a top union official confirms that outside investors’ interest is intensifying. “I’m aware of two (outside groups), but there might be more,” Thomas Buffenbarger, international president of the International Assn. of Machinists, United’s largest union and a member of its creditors committee, told Crain’s. He declines to say which investors have contacted the union.
In a Bankruptcy Court filing last week, United’s creditors committee clearly indicated that there are outside investors interested in buying United Airlines.
This filing is message from United creditors that they are open to consider not only the current United management team’s strategy to pull the world’s second-largest airline out of bankruptcy, but plans from interested takeover groups.
A source close to the creditors committee says “there are very, very qualified people out there waiting for an opportunity” to bid on the company.
