An AAP report sasy that Qantas Airways Ltd chief executive Geoff Dixon has ruled out bidding for the aircraft leasing business of troubled finance house Allco Finance Group.
Allco, which was part of the Macquarie-led group which failed to take over Qantas, is struggling under the pressure to refinance $250 million of short-term debt and is believed to weighing up potential asset sales.
Mr Dixon, however, ruled out bidding for the leasing business, which lends aircraft to British Airways, Emirates, Singapore Airlines and Qantas.
“There’s no interest from us,” Mr Dixon told ABC television.
“We don’t believe that is possible or advisable at the current time given the fact that these infrastructure funds are pretty much under some pressure”.
Allco entered a trading halt on February 11 and then requested a suspension two days later after delaying the release of its interim profit results.
The finance house is expected to release the results on Monday.
Qantas last week delivered an interim profit of $617.6 million, up from $307.5 million a year earlier.
Mr Dixon on Sunday said the company was not concerned about talk of new low-cost airlines entering the Australian domestic market.
Indonesian’s Lion Air and Malaysian airline AirAsia, Asia’s largest budget carrier, have signalled an interest in joining the domestic market.
“I hear there’s some others coming in, I think that’s going to be a little bit of a joke,” Mr Dixon said.
“There’s some discussion about Lion, but not that it particularly concerns us.”
A Report by The Mole and AAP
