Ansett deal falls in a heap

Date: 27 February 2002

ACTU secretary Greg Combet has confirmed the Tesna syndicate has pulled out of a deal to buy Ansett. He says there will now be no jobs for any of Ansett's workers.

Mr Combet says he spoke to Tesna's Solomon Lew this morning who confirmed the deal had collapsed at the last minute.

In a statement released at 9am (AEDT), the Fox/Lew syndicate of Tesna confirmed the deal could not be finalised by tomorrow's midnight deadline.

They blamed issues principally related to third parties.

"Discussions have taken place with the administrators concerning options for resolving the outstanding issues and finalising the sale," the statement said.

"In the light of those discussions and in consideration of our advice, we have reluctantly reached the conclusion that the sale agreement is not capable of completion and that the process involving Tesna and the administrators cease."

Collapse of talks

Mr Lew and Lindsay Fox reportedly walked away from talks with administrators last night.

Final talks between the two parties failed to seal the $453 million sale of the airline to the Fox-Lew syndicate.

It came just hours after administrators secured the vital lease of the Sydney Airport terminal.

Mr Fox and Mr Lew were believed to have decided their business plan for a revived Ansett would not work.

A source confirmed administrators were in talks with the Fox-Lew syndicate until the early hours of today.

But he said they believed they had met all the requirements for the sale to go through by tomorrow's deadline.

The Sydney Airport lease was regarded as a major stumbling block to the sale of Ansett to Tesna.

The newspaper said the chances of the talks resuming between the two parties were now slim.

A 3AW reporter at Melbourne airport said Ansett flights were still leaving and arriving, and there had been no changes to the schedule.

Ansett staff were still issuing boarding passes.

Melbourne Airports corporate affairs manager Geoffrey Conaghan said they were still at the table and were still expecting the sale documents to be signed.

"But I also understand that we're only one of the players. There are a whole bunch of other parties that have documents and leases to be set up," he told ABC radio in Melbourne.

AAP

For further information

Contact:	Jason Gibson
Union:	Australian Services Union - Vic MEU Private Sector Branch
Phone:	03 9342 3418
Fax:	03 9342 3499
Email:	jgibson@meupsvic.asu.asn.au
WWW:	http://www.asuvic.org

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