Money "is Coming In On A Rat Hole Basis"?

[us0004us]

Did he really say that?

According to a transcript of a conference call filed Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, AmWest CEO Doug Parker said investor money "is coming in on a rat hole basis as if assuming the company is worth $850 million."

What seems more likely, according to the audiotape, is that Parker said the money was coming in on a "rata" basis, meaning that investors will receive stock in the new company proportional to the amount of money they put in. -- TONY MECIA


Shareholder gives support

America West's controlling shareholder has promised not to sell its stock until after a merger with US Airways closes, the airline said Wednesday in a securities filing.

That promise helps solidify the proposed merger by making it tough for a rival to take control of America West and derail the planned link-up. The shareholder, Texas Pacific Group, controls about 55 percent of America West's voting stock. TPG also agreed to vote its shares in favor of the merger, if other shareholders vote to approve it.

The support of TPG is crucial to the merger, because the pact still requires approval from shareholders. TPG's managing partner, Richard Schifter, also sits on the executive committee of America West's board of directors. -- TONY MECIA




link here

 

[gso-crew]

Norfolk Sothern told Piedmont the same thing ...... we will bid as high as we have too ....... hey money talks folks! If the the right offer comes along TPG will be counting their change.

 

[funguy2]

The transcripts can be weird... I read a transcript, trying to verify what I heard, and I notice that the discussion of CASM was recorded as chasm. The latter obviously makes no sense:

Sensible: What will the new company's CASM (cost per available seat mile) be?

Non-sensible: What will the new company's chasm be?

Since the answer was 7 cents, I am pretty sure they were discussing CASM and not chasm.

 

[sfb]

The transcripts can be weird... I read a transcript, trying to verify what I heard, and I notice that the discussion of CASM was recorded as chasm.

Well, if you use automatic speech recognition (i.e. a computer program) to do at least part of the transcript, "CASM" will be transcribed as "chasm." A non-savvy human transcriptionist who knows nothing about the industry would likely do the same thing.

America West's controlling shareholder has promised not to sell its stock until after a merger with US Airways closes, the airline said Wednesday in a securities filing.

You know, I had wondered about what Texas Pacific Group's motivation was for getting into this merger deal. The merger agreement effectively values each AWA share at $6.12, which is right around the top of the stock's trading range over the past ten months. Given that another liquidity crunch for AWA was possible next winter, it's also possible that TPG wanted a way to get out of its investment before AWA tanked.