American Airlines, with its private equity partner TPG, is willing to invest $1.1 billion in JAL but with talk of bankruptcy for the struggling carrier, it's not clear if that offer will stand.
A Reuters report out of Tokyo suggest that American is willing to invest even if JAL goes into bankruptcy protection.
"We want to be flexible in terms of our ability to enhance our proposal and we have been continually in conversation with Japan Airlines about that," Will Ris, in charge of government affairs at American Airlines told Reuters. "We are looking at every possibility to make our proposal more attractive."
However, I was talking with American folks on Monday about this very issue and the line I was told to look at AMR chief financial officer Tom Horton's comments back in November.
Horton essentially avoided two questions by Japanese press about the company's intent to invest in JAL if the carrier went into Chapter 11. Here's what he said: "It is our view that our investment and our proposal would be part of an overall restructuring plan led by the government which would restore Japan Airlines to financial health so that is the scenario that we envision."
So as Japanese government officials get closer to deciding on JAL's fate, it will be interesting to see if American is willing to stay in the game.
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