Crash: private equity falls back to earth.

Australasian Business Intelligence, May, 2007

Byline: Jennifer Hewett

May 06, 2007 (The Australian - ABIX via COMTEX) -- The Airline Partners Australia (APA) consortium has not been able to gain enough acceptances for its bid for Qantas Airways. The private equity players led by Bob Mansfield had made an $A11bn pitch for the Australian carrier, but in the end only gathered 46, falling short of their mandatory threshold of 50. Hedge fund holdings complicated the process, and it also appeared that major US investor Samuel Heyman was holding out until the last minute to make arbitrage gains. However, he decided in the end not to sell his holding of almost 10, meaning the bid has collapsed. This was despite consortium partner Macquarie Bank being in constant contact with Heyman, who some now think speculated...

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