Ansett deal in jeopardy
It appears from media reports this morning that a deal to deliver an additional $70 million to 12,500 former Ansett employees, who are still to be paid out and the Federal Government is in jeopardy.
The deal, set to go before the Federal Court next week, involves pooling the combined assets and liabilities of the 39 former Ansett companies and it requires lenders owed money by asset-rich Ansett companies agreeing to some of their money going to former workers at asset-poor firms.
Sebastian Hams from administrator KordaMentha told the Sun Herald this morning that “If I was a betting man, and I am, I’d put money on it at evens, but not a lot.”
Should the administrators secure approval of the courts and corporate creditors, Ansett’s employees would get about 86c in every dollar owed. If not, they will get about 81c in the dollar. That 5c difference equates to nearly $40 million of $760 million owed.
Regardless of the outcome, unsecured creditors will get nothing of the more than $2 billion they are owed.
Mr Hams said that the administrators would achieve their targeted $32 million from asset sales in 2005, despite not selling all the remaining assets as expected.
This was partly because prices for aviation assets had improved since making the estimate in March this year and Ansett still has eight of its original 146 aircraft.
For “practical purposes”, Mr Hams said that the administration was likely to wrap up in late 2007 or early 2008 – much sooner than anticipated after the airline collapsed in September 2001.
Graham Muldoon
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