This May, when the board of Australian airline Qantas realized that the leveraged buyout bid for the company from Airline Partners Australia that it had recommended had failed to garner enough shareholder support to take the company private, recriminations were immediate. The chairwoman and one board director announced their early retirements and the regulatory authorities in Australia announced new measures to monitor the incentives for corporate insiders to support take-private bids.
Less headline-grabbing: the company announced that it would be reviewing its capital management policies. Moody’s got the hint, though. It put the airline’s Baa-1 long-term rating under review for possible downgrade. Shareholders caught on quickly too, bidding the stock up, even as the Macquarie and UBS backed vehicle’s offer...
