Bids for Swissair's I.T. unit(Atraxis)?
by: skeptically 11/01/01 10:36 am
Msg: 259890 of 259892
Wonder who the two bidders are?
biz.yahoo.com
Thursday November 1, 10:25 am Eastern Time
IBM withdraws from bidding for Swissair IT unit
By Marcel Michelson
ZURICH, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Information technology firm IBM Corp. (NYSE:IBM - news) withdrew from bidding for a key Swissair Group unit on Thursday amid efforts to speed the sale of viable firms from the wreckage of the former flag carrier.
Frenetic talks are taking place to try and sell three airline-related units of the once-mighty Swiss aviation conglomerate and stave off a fresh liquidity crunch that could deal a big blow to a national airline salvage plan.
Under this 4.3 billion Swiss franc ($2.66 billion) plan, regional airline Crossair is set to operate some 70 percent of the destinations formerly flown by the collapsed 70-year-old Swissair. It has started operating some European destinations, and long-distance flights are scheduled for April.<
>The main units are the SR Technics maintenance company, the Swissport ground handling unit and the information technology unit Atraxis, which operates flight information services and booking systems that are vital for both airports and airlines.
These companies are expected to run out of cash this month, and the central government has issued a warning it was unwilling to release any funds from the one billion credit to Swissair, as long as the liquidity fate of the subsidiaries remained open.
Current taxpayer funds to Swissair, from a 450 million emergency cash facility awarded after a two-day grounding in early October, are set to last until the weekend.
Atraxis had been in advanced merger talks with Lufthansa Systems Group before the Swissair Group obtained a provisional debt moratorium early last month.
However, the provisional administrator for Swissair wants to see money in exchange for Atraxis in order to pay creditors at least part of what the debt-laden Swissair Group owes.
IBM joined the fray at a later stage.
``We were interested in Atraxis and had a joint bid with Lufthansa,'' a spokeswoman for IBM Switzerland said. ``We withdrew our bid a short while ago.''
She could not say whether Lufthansa was still pursuing a bid on its own. Lufthansa and Atraxis had no immediate comment.
An Atraxis board member said on Wednesday that ``very intensive'' negotiations were taking place with a final shortlist of two possible buyers. He added that negotiations were scheduled for completion in the next few weeks, and expected the sale to be closed by the end of the year. |
