Asset List Blocking Rural Airlines Sale, Says Buyer
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday June 24, 2002
The sale of the former Ansett's regional airlines is on the verge of a last-minute collapse because the Kendell Airlines administrator has failed to properly prepare the business for sale, it has been claimed.
A major shareholder in the Australiawide consortium seeking to buy and merge Kendell Airlines and Hazelton Airlines, Pawl Cubbin, said the $16 million deal could fall through because Kendell's administrator, Mark Mentha, had not provided an adequate inventory of the airline's assets.
``I don't know if they [the administrator] are trying to pressure us into buying it without knowing the assets, or ifthey don't know what the assets are themselves," Mr Cubbin said.
The Federal Government has set a deadline of tomorrow for the sale of the airlines. It has threatened to withdraw a suit of $6 million in incentives for the airlines if the sale does not go ahead.
Mr Cubbin, a spokesman for Australiawide, said shareholders were angry but remained keen to proceed.
He said the consortium had had no difficulty accessing asset information from the Hazelton administrator, the accountancy firm Sims Lockwood.
A spokeswoman for the Kendell administration firm, Korda Mentha and Colleagues, said final negotiations with Australiawide were at a delicate stage and she would not discuss details of the sale.
A spokesman for the Minister for Transport and Regional Services, John Anderson, said talks would proceed today. ``Anything we can do we will do, but in the end it is a commercial deal."
On Saturday it was reported that officials representing Mr Anderson had met executives from Horizon Airlines to discuss operating services should the sale of the regional services fall through.
© 2002 Sydney Morning Herald
