Private buyers land Australia's Qantas

Mar 6, 2007, 8:59 GMT

Sydney - The Australian government on Tuesday approved the takeover of leading airline Qantas by a private equity consortium after securing guarantees that the carrier would not pass into majority foreign ownership and jobs would not be lost abroad.

In January the Qantas board recommended to shareholders a friendly bid from Macquarie Bank-led Airlines Partners Australia (APA).

APA gave Treasurer Peter Costello a commitment it would abide by rules that limit foreign ownership in Qantas to 49 per cent and individual shareholdings to 25 per cent.

'The deed of undertaking sets out foreign majority ownership of Qantas will not occur,' Costello said.

Sydney-based Macquarie's major partner is United States-based private equity fund Texas Pacific Group.

The cash bid values the airline at 11 billion Australian dollars (8.4 billion US dollars). It's the biggest corporate takeover in Australian history and has raised hackles on the opposition benches in parliament.

Greens leader Bob Brown accused Prime Minister John Howard of encouraging the transfer of an Australian asset into foreign hands.

'There are thousands of jobs at stake and now the quality of Qantas jobs are now on the down escalator,' Brown said. 'John Howard would sell the Opera House and Uluru, no problem.'

The Labor Party's Martin Ferguson, opposition transport spokesman in parliament, said there were concerns about the privatization of the airline. 'This is a major Australian icon, it's important for jobs, a major employer of apprentices, services regional Australia,' Ferguson said. 'If this goes wrong, we are a major loser as a nation.'