KEY POINTS:
Macquarie Bank and its buyout partners will not extend the A$11.1 billion cash offer for Qantas as they strive to bring their six-month campaign for Australia's biggest airline to a close.
The group, which has seen some shareholders cancel plans to sell their Qantas stock in the past two weeks, said the A$5.45-a-share offer will close on May 4.
To encourage more acceptances, shareholders will be paid five days after agreeing to the takeover, compared with a month's wait previously.
"That should stem the flow of institutions taking back their acceptances," said Atul Lele of White Funds Management in Sydney.
Buyouts face growing resistance in Australia, where money managers say there are too few alternative investments after selling to private equity firms.
Balanced Equity Management, a Melbourne fund manager that holds about 4 per cent of Qantas, last month said the offer was too low, and UBS Global Asset Management, with a 6 per cent stake, has not revealed its intentions.
The Macquarie-led group, which includes TPG, said on Friday that it had acceptances from shareholders accounting for 27.48 per cent of the airline's stock, down from as much as 30.06 per cent previously as funds realised profits by selling their shares on the market.
Qantas shares closed at A$5.37 last week, just 1.5 per cent less than the buyout offer. The stock has gained 23 per cent since the airline said on November 22 that it had received a takeover approach.
The carrier has 140,000 investors, about 12 per cent of whom hold no more than 5000 shares.
Lele said small individual investors were probably waiting for a lead from institutions before deciding whether to accept the offer.
The group has made getting 70 per cent of Qantas' stock a condition of the bid. If it reaches 50 per cent by May 4, Australian takeover rules allow for a 14-day extension of the offer.
"Now is the time for those supportive shareholders to accept," said Bob Mansfield, a spokesman for the buyout group. "If the bid fails the share price will almost certainly fall."
- BLOOMBERG
