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Flight Centre, Australia's biggest travel agent, says its A$1.6 billion ($1.8 billion) management buyout is unlikely to be approved because Lazard Asset Management is holding out for a better offer.
Lazard owns about 28 per cent of the shares to be voted at a shareholder meeting scheduled for today, enough to stop Flight Centre winning the 75 per cent support needed to approve the deal.
Chief executive officer Graham Turner and his four founding partners can't vote their 58 per cent stake.
"There's only one investor that has caused the issue and that's Lazard, which has a blocking stake," Turner said yesterday. "The rationale, at least officially, is that the offer wasn't high enough."
