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The Bid may be dead but the complications continue!
APA has announced this morning that its $11.1 billion takeover bid for Qantas should be treated as “having lapsed on 4 May 2007.”
With Qantas share trading being suspended yesterday to allow both Qantas and Airline Partners Australia to clear up what was happening to the APA bid, it has emerged that the high turnover of shares in recent weeks may now mean that Qantas has too many foreign shareholders on its registry, thus breaching the limit imposed on foreign ownership.
Now that the bid is finally consigned to the graveyard, shares will have to be returned to their owners. A number of foreign shareholders may now be caught in the cross-hairs of the Qantas Sale Act and subsequently be removed from the registry.
Before conceding defeat, APA considered forcing those shareholders that only gave partial share acceptances to hand over the remainder of their shares, through the use of a clause in the offer statement. The argument taken to ASIC last night was that with full acceptances, last Friday’s 46% was actually well over the 50% required to keep the bid alive.
In the end, APA accepted the realities of the situation and declined legal action, stating that this would only cause more uncertainty. APA is now considering its options, including the possibility of launching another takeover bid. However, it is not certain that the Qantas board would support a fresh bid from APA.
Given that there is still quite some uncertainty, and that APA may not yet be out of the picture, the impact on Qantas share prices will be interesting to say the least, particularly if foreign shareholders decide to sell! Qantas share trading has now recommenced….
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