BA will Virgin übernehmen / Swiss streicht weiter Stellen un

[Gast]

Meldung von Bloomberg.

 

-British Airways will am Montag ein Übernahmeplan für Virgin Atlantic vorlegen.

-Sollte Virgin BMI übernehmen wollen so will BA eine Klage bei der Regulierungsbehörde einreichen.

(-Außerdem Verlust bei BA verdreifacht)

 

-Swiss streicht 1/3 Personal und will 8 weitere Langstrecken-Flugzeuge stilllegen.

Swiss Express soll aus nur 30 Flugzeugen bestehen.

 

 

Scheint ganz so als würde BA langsam kalte Füße bekommen und will BMI zuvorkommen.

Kann eigentlich jemand etwas genaueres zu Swiss Express sagen. Habe davon noch nicht so viel mitbekommen

 

Entschuldigung das die News nur so kurz sind aber mehr wurde noch nicht gesagt.

 

_________________

-Gruß Steffen-

Spot The World !

 

[ Diese Nachricht wurde geändert von: XQ-NUE am 2003-05-25 15:40 ]

[F_Vitale]

Nur zum Verständnis: Will BMI -> Virgin übernehmen oder umgekehrt?

Danke, Frank

[hcn_tvs]

So wie er es geschrieben hat:

 

VIRGIN ÜBERNIMMT BMI

 

so versteh ich es.

 

 

gruess

 

hcn_tvs

[akayama]

Sunday Times

 

Branson planned BA takeover — but now BA may buy Virgin

DOMINIC O'CONNELL

 

EXECUTIVES at British Airways will this week be asked to draw up

plans for a dramatic bid for Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic

after it emerged that Virgin had come within a whisker of trying to

buy BA.

 

Branson was close to making a full-blown offer to BA shareholders

earlier this year — having started tentative talks with BMI British

Midland, the airline chaired by Sir Michael Bishop.

 

Branson enlisted the support of Texas Pacific Group, the American

private-equity firm founded by David Bonderman, one of the world's

most successful airline investors. He was advised on the BA plan —

codenamed Project Balloon — by Credit Suisse First Boston.

 

Sources close to Branson said that after three weeks' study, he and

his advisers decided instead to pursue talks with BMI. The merger

discussions became public last week.

 

BA would say only that it was "watching developments" between BMI and

Virgin. But it is understood that John Rishton, finance director, and

Roger Maynard, director of investments, will be asked to draw up

contingency plans tomorrow.

 

Senior BA executives say the negotiations could yet lead to a deal

involving their company. "We are not ruling anything in or out at the

moment," said a senior BA executive.

 

Rod Eddington, chief executive, has told colleagues that a bid for

BMI would likely fall foul of competition regulators — the combined

group would have more than half of all take-off and landing slots at

Heathrow — but a bid for Virgin was not out of the question.

 

Sources close to Branson say Virgin planned to make its move on BA

once its share price slid below 100p — which it did for much of

March. The offer would have been pitched at 130-140p, valuing

Britain's flag carrier at about £1.5 billion.

 

"Our conclusion was that the competition issues would not have been

that great, but on balance we decided that the talks with BMI offered

a better opportunity," said one Virgin source.

 

While Virgin and BMI were eager to pour cold water on the possiblity

of a merger last week, senior executives on both sides remain

convinced of the merits of the deal. An adviser to BMI said the talks

had foundered over Virgin's projections for its growth and future

profitability. "We felt their numbers were a bit racy," he said.

 

Meanwhile, Branson will soon announce the withdrawal of the business-

class bed-seats that it launched with great fanfare three years ago.

The seats — designed for Virgin Atlantic — have turned out to be a

costly failure. The axing will be confirmed when the airline unveils

its new upper-class cabin in the next month. ·

 

Branson has written to Jean-Cyril Spinetta, the Air France chairman,

offering to buy the airline's Concordes, which are to be retired in

October. "We would be keen to either work with you in operating your

Concordes from the UK or to acquire your Concordes outright," he

wrote last week.

 

 

[ Diese Nachricht wurde geändert von: akayama am 2003-05-25 16:56 ]

[akayama]

Mehr dazu von Reuters ....

 

Reuters

Virgin says looked at bidding for British Airways

Sunday May 25, 8:49 am ET

By Sudip Kar-Gupta

 

 

LONDON, May 25 (Reuters) - British long-haul airline Virgin Atlantic looked at the possibility earlier this year of bidding for its much bigger arch-rival British Airways (London:BAY.L - News) before deciding to pursue talks instead with BMI British Midland , a top executive said on Sunday.

 

"We looked at it in late January and had quite a lot of work done on it," Virgin Group director Will Whitehorn told Reuters, adding the study was codenamed Project Balloon and involved investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston.

 

Instead, Virgin then turned to talks with BMI about closer co-operation at London's Heathrow airport, where all three airlines are based, although no definitive conclusions had been reached on any permanent tie-up.

 

Short-haul carrier BMI is the second-biggest holder behind BA of much sought-after takeoff and landing slots at Heathrow.

 

Virgin Atlantic is run by the maverick British entrepreneur Richard Branson who won a celebrated libel case against BA over allegations of dirty tricks 10 years ago and five years ago toyed with buying shares in his rival after they had halved in price to little more than 325 pence.

 

Last week BA's shares closed at 128 pence.

 

Full-service airlines around the world have suffered a series of knocks in demand since the September 11 2001 attacks on the United States, with the effects of the recent war in Iraq and the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) virus piling on the pressure.

 

Any tie-up between Virgin and BMI at Heathrow, BA's home airport would further threaten BA's market position and a spokesman for Europe's largest airline said on Sunday it was considering all options regarding the situation.

 

However, BMI said last week that a merger with Virgin was no longer being discussed between the two airlines, which, like BA hold coveted runway slots at Heathrow, the world's busiest international airport.

 

MERGER GOSSIP

 

And Virgin and BMI dismissed press reports on Sunday that BA might make its own bid for either airline.

 

"Virgin Atlantic is not up for sale, and we've had no approaches from BA," said Whitehorn.

 

Virgin Atlantic, in which Branson's Virgin Group Ltd has a 51 percent holding with Singapore Airlines (SES:SIAL.SI - News) owning the rest, makes much of its profit from routes between Heathrow and U.S. cities but also flies to the Far East and South Africa.

 

Whitehorn said Virgin had received advice which showed it could acquire both BMI and BA without major regulatory issues.

 

He said U.S. private equity firm Texas Pacific Group (News - Websites), with whom Branson has worked in the past, would have helped fund any BA bid, but that Virgin decided eventually that BMI was the easier option.

 

"BMI would have had no competition issues at all, and it would create a more interesting challenger," he said.

 

British Midland mainly flies within Europe but also has a transatlantic route between Manchester, in north England, and Washington.

 

German carrier Lufthansa AG (XETRA:LHAG.DE - News) and Scandinavian airline SAS (Stockholm:SAS.ST - News) hold 29.9 percent and 20 percent stakes in BMI respectively and are members of the Star alliance of airlines along with UAL's (NYSE:UAL - News) United Airlines, another transatlantic rival to BA and Virgin at Heathrow.

 

BA, which was recently relegated from the London share market's FTSE-100 index following a further drop in its share price, warned last week that first-quarter revenues would be weaker than a year ago, taking the shine off annual profits which came in at the top end of market forecasts.

[Gast MUC-MD11]

Das SWISS-Gerücht stammt - mal wieder - von der Schweizer Sonntagszeitung, die sich - ebenso mal wieder - auf interne Informationen beruft ... kein weiterer Kommentar

[Thomas_Jaeger]

... wobei die Informationen ein weiteres Mal praktisch deckungsgleich mit dem sind, was ich von Swiss-Mitarbeitern gesteckt bekomme habe.

[PHIRAOS]

Hallo!

 

Mit der ganzen BA und Virgin Atlantic und bmi Sache bin ich jetzt durcheinander gekommen.

Virgin Atlantic wollte doch schon die Concordes von BA aufkaufen. Dann will Virgin die ganze Fluggesellschaft BA übernehmen? Das geht nicht. BA ist die "staatliche" britische Fluggesellschaft. Der umgekehrte Fall, also Virgin wird von BA übernommen könnte eher sein, will ich aber nicht hoffen.

 

gruß

phil

[Gast]

Aber Swiss Express soll nicht der angekündigte LCC der Swiss sein, oder?

[PHIRAOS]

Hallo!

 

Die Swiss will Ihr Regionalgeschäft in eine eigene Fluggesellschaft namens Swiss Express ausgliedern. Also wird es bald wieder eine eigene Regionalfluggesellschaft in der Schweiz geben, so wie es früher die Crossair gab.

 

gruß

phil

[Air_Switzerland]

Sieht aus, als ob die Swiss die unrentablen Langstrecken loswerden will. Ist auch richtig in dieser schwierigen Lage. Geplant sei eine Reduktion der Langstreckenflotte auf total 18 Maschine, das heisst minus 7. ( 11 A332 und 7 MD11 bzw. A340 ) Die Bestellung für die restlichen A340 möchte man hinausschieben und diese zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt übernehmen. Wenn alle A343 irgeneinmal übernommen werden, sind es total wieder 23 Langstreckenmaschinen. Das sind meine aktuellen Kenntnisse.

[Alex330]

Turbulente Zeiten im Luftverkehr...

 

Und die Gerüchte um LH/LX halten sich sehr hartnäckig. LH will angeblich aber nur, wenn LX die Langstrecken reduziert.

 

BA/VS... Damit hätte die BA ihr Großbritannien-Monopol wieder deutlich gestärkt. Und Richard Bransons Ehrgefühl wäre wohl ziemlich verletzt.

 

Beide Mergers - sofern sie denn kommen - sähe ich sehr ungern, aber anscheinend tritt nun ein, was schon lange vorausgesagt wurde, nämlich dass langfristig in Europa nur ca. 3 große Airlines überleben, + Nischencarrier.

 

Solche Aussagen wurde allerdings vor Jahren ohne Einbeziheung der LCCs gemacht.

 

Übrigens streben wohl AF und AZ langfristig auch eine Fusion an.

 

Gruß

Alex